GCN Circular 9356

A. P. Beardmore (U Leicester), J. A. Kennea (PSU),
C. B. Markwardt (CRESST/GSFC/UMD), P. T. O'Brien (U Leicester),
K. L. Page (U Leicester), D. M. Palmer (LANL),
B. A. Rowlinson (U Leicester), M. H. Siegel (PSU),
M. Stamatikos (NASA/ORAU) and T. N. Ukwatta (GSFC/GWU) report on
behalf of the Swift Team:

At 04:45:09 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 090515 (trigger=352108).  Swift slewed immediately to the burst. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 164.171, +14.456 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 10h 56m 41s
   Dec(J2000) = +14d 27' 22"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve showed a single short spike
structure with a duration of about 0.1 sec.  The peak count rate
was ~10000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. 

The XRT began observing the field at 04:46:13.3 UT, 63.8 seconds after
the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright,
uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 164.15224, 14.44099 which
is equivalent to:
   RA(J2000)  = 10h 56m 36.54s
   Dec(J2000) = +14d 26' 27.6"
with an uncertainty of 4.8 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 84 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT
error circle. This position may be improved as more data are received;
the latest position is available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/sper. 

A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event
data gives a column density consistent with the Galactic value of
1.94e+20 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al. 2005). 

The initial flux in the 2.5 s image was 5.22e-10 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10
keV). 

UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter
starting 72 seconds after the BAT trigger. No credible afterglow candidate has
been found in the initial data products. The 2.7'x2.7' sub-image covers 100% of
the XRT error circle. The typical 3-sigma upper limit has been about 19.6 mag. 
The 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated on-board covers 100% of the
XRT error circle. The list of sources is typically complete to about 18 mag. No
correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of
0.02. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is A. P. Beardmore (apb AT star.le.ac.uk). 
Please contact the BA by email if you require additional information
regarding Swift followup of this burst. In extremely urgent cases, after
trying the Burst Advocate, you can contact the Swift PI by phone (see
Swift TOO web site for information: http://www.swift.psu.edu/too.html.)