GRB 080701

M. C. Stroh (PSU), A. P. Beardmore (U Leicester), D. N. Burrows (PSU),
P. A. Evans (U Leicester), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC),
C. Guidorzi (INAF-OAB), E. A. Hoversten (PSU), C. Pagani (PSU),
K. L. Page (U Leicester), D. M. Palmer (LANL),
D. Perez (U Leicester), P. Romano (INAF-IASFPA),
T. Sakamoto (NASA/UMBC), R. L. C. Starling (U Leicester),
T. N. Ukwatta (GSFC/GWU), L. Vetere (PSU) and H. Ziaeepour (UCL-MSSL)
report on behalf of the Swift Team:

At 10:13:37 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 080701 (trigger=315615).  Swift did not immediately slew
due to an Earth limb constraint.  The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 45.837, +75.492 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 03h 03m 21s
   Dec(J2000) = +75d 29' 30"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve showed a smooth peak
structure with a duration of ~15 sec.  The peak count rate
was ~2500 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~1 sec after the trigger. 

Swift was unable to slew to the source due to due to Earth limb
constraints. X-ray telescope and UV/optical telescope observations of
this region will become possible at T+50 minutes. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is M. C. Stroh (stroh AT astroh.org). 
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.)

M.C. Stroh, C. Pagani (PSU) and P. Evans (U. Leicester) report on  
behalf of the Swift-XRT team.

The XRT began observing the field at 11:00:14.4 UT, 2796.8 seconds
after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find an
uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 45.83937, 75.47535 which
is equivalent to:
  RA(J2000)  = 03h 03m 21.45s
  Dec(J2000) = +75d 28' 31.3"
with an uncertainty of 3.1 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 59 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT
error circle.

A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event
data gives a column density in excess of the Galactic value (1.78e+21
cm-2, Kalberla et al. 2005), with an excess column of 6.3
(+3.88/-3.07) x 10^21 cm-2 (90% confidence).

This is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.

P.A. Evans, M.R. Goad, J.P. Osborne and A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester) 
report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team.

Using 699 s of overlapping XRT Photon Counting mode and UVOT
data for GRB 080701, we find an astrometrically corrected X-ray
position (using the XRT-UVOT alignment and matching UVOT field sources
to the USNO-B1 catalogue): RA, Dec = 45.83882, +75.47479 which is equivalent
to:

RA (J2000): 03h 03m 21.32s
Dec (J2000): +75d 28' 29.3"

with an uncertainty of 1.7 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence).

This position may be improved as more data are received. The latest position
can be viewed at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_positions. Position enhancement is
described by Goad et al. (2007, A&A, 476, 1401
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_positions/Goad.pdf), the current algorithm is an
extension of this method.

This circular was automatically generated, and is an official product of the
Swift-XRT team.

M.C. Stroh (PSU) reports on behalf of the Swift-XRT team.

We have analyzed the first four orbits of Swift-XRT data obtained for  
GRB 080701 (Stroh et al., GCN Circ. 7910
Loading...
 
 ), totaling 2.4ks of Photon  
Counting data.

The UVOT-enhanced XRT position has been given by Evans et al. in GCN  
Circ 7914
Loading...
 
 .

The X-ray light-curve can be fit by a power-law with a decay index of  
1.04 +/- 0.27. Assuming a constant decay rate, we predict counting  
rates at T+24 and T+48 hours of 4.55e-3 and 2.21e-3 cts/s respectively.

The spectrum can be fit with a power-law in excess of the Galactic  
value (1.78e21 cm-2, Kalberla et al. 2005), with an excess column of  
9.21 (+6.43/-4.78)e21 cm^-2 and a photon index of 2.93 (+0.79/-0.59).  
The observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux is 3.55e-12 (1.976e-11) ergs/ 
cm^2/s.

This is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.