Skip to main content
Announcing GCN Classic Migration Survey, End of Legacy Circulars Email. See news and announcements

GCN Circular 32815

Subject
GRB 221020A: Detection by GRBAlpha
Date
2022-10-22T14:20:07Z (2 years ago)
From
Jakub Ripa at Masaryk University <245487@mail.muni.cz>
J. Ripa (Masaryk U.), A. Pal (Konkoly Observatory), N. Werner (Masaryk 
U.), M. Ohno, H. Takahashi (Hiroshima U.), L. Meszaros, B. Csak (Konkoly 
Observatory), M. Dafcikova, F. Munz, N. Husarikova, J.-P. Breuer, M. 
Topinka, F. Hroch (Masaryk U.), T. Urbanec, M. Kasal,�� A. Povalac (Brno 
U. of Technology), J. Hudec, J. Kapus, M. Frajt (Spacemanic s.r.o), R. 
Laszlo, M. Koleda (Needronix s.r.o), M. Smelko, P. Hanak, P. Lipovsky 
(Technical U. of Kosice), G. Galgoczi (Wigner Research Center/Eotvos 
U.), Y. Uchida, H. Poon, H. Matake (Hiroshima U.), N. Uchida 
(ISAS/JAXA), T. Bozoki (Eotvos U.), G. Dalya (Eotvos U.), T. Enoto 
(Kyoto U.), Zs. Frei (Eotvos U.), G. Friss (Eotvos U.), Y. Fukazawa, K. 
Hirose (Hiroshima U.), S. Hisadomi (Nagoya U.), Y. Ichinohe (Rikkyo U.), 
K. Kapas (Eotvos U.), L. L. Kiss (Konkoly Observatory),�� T. Mizuno 
(Hiroshima U.), K. Nakazawa (Nagoya U.), H. Odaka (Univ of Tokyo), J. 
Takatsy (Eotvos U.), K. Torigoe (Hiroshima U.), N. Kogiso, M. Yoneyama 
(Osaka Metropolitan U.), M. Moritaki (U. Tokyo), T. Kano (U. Michigan) 
-- the GRBAlpha collaboration.

The long-duration GRB 221020A (Fermi-GBM detection: Fermi GBM Team, GCN 
Circ. 32806) was detected by the GRBAlpha 1U CubeSat (Pal et al. Proc. 
SPIE 2020).

The 11.3 sigma detection was confirmed at the peak time 2022-10-20 
05:23:59.8 UTC. The GRB has a T90 duration of 15 s.

The light curve obtained by GRBAlpha is available here:
https://grbalpha.konkoly.hu/static/share/GRB221020A_GCN_GRBAlpha.pdf

GRBAlpha, launched on 2021 March 22, is a demonstration mission for a 
future CubeSat constellation (Werner et al. Proc. SPIE 2018). Its 
detector consists of a 75 x 75 x 5 mm^3 CsI(Tl) scintillator read out by 
a SiPM array, covering the energy range from ~50 keV to ~1000 keV. To 
increase the duty cycle and the downlink rate, we are continuously 
upgrading the on-board data acquisition software stack. The ground 
segment is also supported by the radio amateur community and it takes 
advantage of the SatNOGS network for increased data downlink volume.
Looking for U.S. government information and services? Visit USA.gov