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GRB 120212A

GCN Circular 10408

Subject
Swift/UVOT observations of GRB120212A
Date
2010-02-13T15:32:09Z (15 years ago)
From
Massimiliano de Pasquale at MSSL-UCL <mdp@mssl.ucl.ac.uk>
M. De Pasquale (MSSL/UCL) and D. Grupe (PSU) report on behalf of the
Swift/UVOT team:

The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 100212A
68 s after the BAT trigger (Grupe et al., GCN Circ. 10401) with
the finding chart in the white filter.
No optical afterglow is detected within the enhanced XRT error circle
position (Osborne et al., GCN Circ 10403) in the initial UVOT exposure
and in all other summed exposures at 3 sigma level. The optical source
detected by NOT (Malesani et al, GCN circ 10402) is not detected either
at 3 sigma level.

Preliminary 3-sigma upper limits using the UVOT photometric system
(Poole et al. 2008, MNRAS, 383, 627) for the first finding chart (FC)
exposure and subsequent exposures are:

Filter         T_start(s)   T_stop(s)      Exp(s)         Mag

white_FC            68          218          147         >20.6
u_FC               281          530          246         >19.8
white               68         1181          353         >21.2
v                  610         1231           78         >18.7
b                  536         1156           58         >19.5
u                  281         1304          304         >19.8
w1                 660         1280           78         >19.2
m2                 635         1255           78         >19.3
w2                 586         1206           78         >19.6

The values quoted above are not corrected for the strong Galactic 
extinction due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.18 in the direction of the 
burst (Schlegel et al. 1998).

GCN Circular 12930

Subject
GRB 120212A: Swift detection of a burst
Date
2012-02-12T09:19:47Z (13 years ago)
From
David Palmer at LANL <palmer@lanl.gov>
E. Sonbas (NASA/GSFC/Adiyaman Univ.), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC),
A. P. Beardmore (U Leicester), C. Guidorzi (U Ferrara),
A. Y. Lien (NASA/GSFC/ORAU), K. L. Page (U Leicester) and
D. M. Palmer (LANL) report on behalf of the Swift Team:

At 09:11:22 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 120212A (trigger=514709).  Swift slewed to the burst location
at T+44 min due to an Earth limb observing constraint.
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 43.105, -18.025 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 02h 52m 25s
   Dec(J2000) = -18d 01' 29"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve showed a single-peaked
structure with a duration of about 8 sec.  The peak count rate
was ~1600 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. 

Due to an observing constraint, Swift will not slew until T0+44.6
minutes. There will be no XRT or UVOT data until this time. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is E. Sonbas (edasonbas AT yahoo.com). 
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.)

[GCN OPS NOTE(12feb12): Per author's request, the auto-generated
"slewed immediately" sentence was corrected to reflect the delayed slew.]

GCN Circular 12932

Subject
GRB 120212A: Faulkes Telescope South afterglow candidate
Date
2012-02-12T10:14:11Z (13 years ago)
From
Cristiano Guidorzi at Ferrara U,Italy <guidorzi@fe.infn.it>
C. Guidorzi (U. Ferrara), C.G. Mundell, F. Virgili, I.A. Steele
(LJMU), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of a larger
collaboration:

The 2-m Faulkes Telescope South automatically began observing
GRB 120212A (Sonbas et al. GCN Circ. 12930) on February 2012,
09:25:18 UT corresponding to 14 minutes post burst
with BVRi' filters. We found the following uncatalogued source,

R.A. = 02:52:24.06
Dec = -18:01:14.2   (J2000)

with an uncertainty of about 1" with a magnitude of R=16.3 at
22 minutes, calibrated against USNOB-1 stars.
Presently, we cannot determine whether the source is fading.

GCN Circular 12933

Subject
GRB 120212A: Swift/UVOT detection
Date
2012-02-12T10:59:39Z (13 years ago)
From
Erik Hoversten at Swift/Penn State <hoversten@astro.psu.edu>
E. A. Hoversten (PSU) and E. Sonbas (NASA/GSFC/Adiyaman Univ.) report on behalf of the Swift team:

UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter
starting 2885 seconds after the BAT trigger. The source identified by 
Guidorzi et al. (GCN Circ. 12932) is detected in the rapidly available 
2.7'x2.7' sub-image at

RA(J2000) =	02:52:24.06 = 43.10025
DEC(J2000) = -18:01:14.1 = -18.02057

with a 90%-confidence error radius of about 0.76 arc sec. This position is 5.21
arc sec. from the center of the XRT error circle. The estimated magnitude is
18.31 with a 1-sigma error of about 0.15. No correction has been made for the
expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.03.

GCN Circular 12934

Subject
GRB 120212A: Swift-XRT observations
Date
2012-02-12T11:03:25Z (13 years ago)
From
Phil Evans at U of Leicester <pae9@star.le.ac.uk>
M. Perri (ASDC), P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U.
Leicester), D.N. Burrows (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU) and G. Cusumano
(INAF-IASF PA) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

The XRT began observing the field of GRB 120212A at 09:59:24.6 UT,
2881.9 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we
find a fading, uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 43.10208,
-18.02125 which is equivalent to:
   RA(J2000)  = 02h 52m 24.50s
   Dec(J2000) = -18d 01' 16.5"
with an uncertainty of 3.6 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 16 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 in excess of the Galactic value (2.99 x
10^20 cm^-2, Kalberla et al. 2005), with an excess column of 1.6
(+1.23/-1.13) x 10^21 cm^-2 (90% confidence).

GCN Circular 12935

Subject
GRB 120212A: Kanata/HOWPol optical observation
Date
2012-02-12T13:06:41Z (13 years ago)
From
Koji Kawabata at HASC,Hiroshima U <kawabtkj@hiroshima-u.ac.jp>
K. S. Kawabata, H. Akitaya, M. Yamanaka, K. Takaki, T. Uehara, and
M. Yoshida (Hiroshima Univ.) report on behalf of Kanata team:

We performed a series of optical imaging polarimetry for the optical 
afterglow of GRB 120212A (Guidorzi et al.; GCN 12932) using HOWPol attached 
to the 1.5-m Kanata telescope at Higashi-Hiroshima Observatory, Japan. 

Our first exposure began at t=74 sec since Swift/BAT trigger (Sonbas 
et al.; GCN 12930), but the bright twilight sky shaded the afterglow 
until t=22 min. Our quick-look analysis indicates that Rc magnitude of 
the afterglow was 16.5 at t=23 min and faded to 17.6 at t=58 min. 
Further analysis is ongoing.

GCN Circular 12937

Subject
GRB 120212A: Enhanced Swift-XRT position
Date
2012-02-12T13:59:38Z (13 years ago)
From
Phil Evans at U of Leicester <pae9@star.le.ac.uk>
J.P. Osborne, A.P. Beardmore, P.A. Evans and M.R. Goad (U. Leicester) 
report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team.

Using 2484 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 7 UVOT
images for GRB 120212A, 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 = 43.10025, -18.02079 which is equivalent
to:

RA (J2000): 02h 52m 24.06s
Dec (J2000): -18d 01' 14.8"

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) and Evans
et al. (2009, MNRAS, 397, 1177).

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

GCN Circular 12938

Subject
GRB 120212A: Errata of subject in GCNC 12936
Date
2012-02-12T14:09:27Z (13 years ago)
From
Kenshi Yanagisawa at OAO/NAOJ <yanagi@oao.nao.ac.jp>
Kenshi Yanagisawa, Daisuke Kuroda, Yasuhiro Shimizu, Kiichi Okita
(OAO/NAOJ), Michitoshi Yoshida (Hiroshima-U), Kouji Ohta(Kyoto-U),
and Nobuyuki Kawai(Tokyo Tech.) report on behalf of the MITSuME
collaboration:

We made a typo on subject in GCNC 12936.
The correct subject is
 "GRB 120212A: MITSuME Okayama Ks-band observation".
We apologize for the possible confusion.

GCN Circular 12939

Subject
GRB 120212A: Swift-BAT refined analysis
Date
2012-02-12T16:14:22Z (13 years ago)
From
Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC <scott@lheamail.gsfc.nasa.gov>
S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), J. R. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC),
E. E. Fenimore (LANL), N. Gehrels (GSFC), H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA),
C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (GSFC/UMBC),
G. Sato (ISAS), E. Sonbas (NASA/GSFC/Adiyaman U), M. Stamatikos (OSU),
J. Tueller (GSFC), T. N. Ukwatta (MSU)
(i.e. the Swift-BAT team):
 
Using the data set from T-240 to T+962 sec from recent telemetry downlinks,
we report further analysis of BAT GRB 120212A (trigger #514709)
(Sonbas, et al., GCN Circ. 12930).  The BAT ground-calculated position is
RA, Dec = 43.086, -18.043 deg, which is 
   RA(J2000)  =  02h 52m 20.6s 
   Dec(J2000) = -18d 02' 33.0" 
with an uncertainty of 1.6 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment).
The partial coding was 22%.
 
The mask-weighted light curve shows a single FRED pulse starting at ~T-0.7.
peaking at ~T+1, and ending at ~T+6 sec.
T90 (15-350 keV) is 5.52 +- 1.04 sec (estimated error including systematics).
 
The time-averaged spectrum from T-0.76 to T+6.09 sec is best fit by a simple
power-law model.  The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is
2.05 +- 0.19.  The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 5.1 +- 0.6 x 10^-7 erg/cm2.
The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T-0.02 sec in the 15-150 keV band
is 2.1 +- 0.3 ph/cm2/sec.  All the quoted errors are at the 90% confidence
level. 
 
The results of the batgrbproduct analysis are available at
http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/notices_s/514709/BA/

GCN Circular 12940

Subject
GRB 120212A: Swift/UVOT Detection
Date
2012-02-12T20:17:41Z (13 years ago)
From
Paul Kuin at MSSL <npkuin@gmail.com>
N. P. M. Kuin (MSSL-UCL) and E. Sonbas (NASA/GSFC / Adiyaman_Univ.)
report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team:

The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 120212A
2885 s after the BAT trigger (Sonbas et al., GCN Circ. 12930).
A source consistent with the enhanced XRT position (Osborne et al.,
GCN Circ. 12937) is detected in the initial UVOT exposures.

The preliminary UVOT position is:
   RA  (J2000) =  02:52:24.05 =  43.10020 (deg.)
   Dec (J2000) = -18:01:14.2  = -18.02062 (deg.)
with an estimated uncertainty of 0.53 arc sec. (radius, 90% confidence).

The source is in the extended emission of a bright star (HD 17932) at
a distance
of 31", so the background was sampled at the same distance of that bright star
as the GRB is.

Preliminary detections and 3-sigma upper limits using the UVOT
photometric system
(Breeveld et al. 2011, AIP Conf. Proc. 1358, 373) for the early exposures are:

Filter         T_start(s)   T_stop(s)      Exp(s)           Mag

white             2885         3035          147         18.48 +/- 0.08
white             2885         5088          688         18.69 +/- 0.05
v                 2867         5379          286         18.12 +/- 0.12
b                 3249         4883          393         18.66 +/- 0.08
u                 3044         4678          393         18.47 +/- 0.10
w1                4274        11156          765        >21.0
m2                4069        10572         1082        >21.3
w2                3659         5294          393        >20.8

The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic extinction
due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.03 in the direction of the burst
(Schlegel et al. 1998).

GCN Circular 12941

Subject
GRB 120212A: NOT optical observation
Date
2012-02-12T21:37:27Z (13 years ago)
From
Dong Xu at Weizmann Inst <dong.dark@gmail.com>
D. Xu (WIS), D. Malesani (DARK), G. Barisevicius (NOT), B. Nordstrom,
J. Andersen (NBI), P. Jakobsson (U. Iceland) report on
behalf of a larger collaboration:

We observed the field of GRB 120212A (Sonbas et al., GCN 12930) using
the 2.5m Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) equipped with the ALFSOC
camera. We obtained 4x200s R-band images with a median time 19:52:24
UT on 2012-02-12, i.e., 10.7 hrs after the BAT trigger.

The optical afterglow of this burst (Guidorzi et al., GCN 12932;
Hoversten et al., GCN 12933; Kawabata et al., GCN 12935; Kuin et al.,
GCN 12940) was clearly detected in our stacked image and had R ~ 20.1
mag calibrated with nearby stars in the USNO B1 catalog.

GCN Circular 12943

Subject
GRB 120212A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis
Date
2012-02-13T00:45:14Z (13 years ago)
From
Kim Page at U.of Leicester <kpa@star.le.ac.uk>
K.L. Page (U. Leicester) and E. Sonbas (NASA/GSFC/Adiyaman Univ.)
report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 16 ks of XRT data for GRB 120212A (Sonbas  et al. GCN
Circ. 12930), from 2.9 ks to 44.6 ks after the	BAT trigger. The data
are entirely in Photon Counting (PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position
for this burst was given by Osborne et al. (GCN. Circ 12937).

The light curve can be modelled with  a power-law decay with a decay
index of alpha=1.25 (+/-0.06).

A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index of 2.11 (+0.16, -0.15). The
best-fitting absorption column is  7.5 (+3.3, -3.0) x 10^20 cm^-2, in
excess of the Galactic value of 3.0 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al.
2005). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion
factor deduced from this spectrum  is 3.4 x 10^-11 (4.3 x 10^-11) erg
cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     7.5 (+3.3, -3.0) x 10^20 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 3.0 x 10^20 cm^-2
Excess significance: 2.5 sigma
Photon index:	     2.11 (+0.16, -0.15)

The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00514709.

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

GCN Circular 12947

Subject
GRB 120212A: MITSuME Ishigakijima Optical Observation
Date
2012-02-13T04:58:31Z (13 years ago)
From
Daisuke Kuroda at OAO/NAOJ <dikuroda@oao.nao.ac.jp>
D. Kuroda (OAO, NAOJ),  H. Hanayama, T. Miyaji, J. Watanabe (IAO, NAOJ),
K. Yanagisawa (OAO, NAOJ), S.Nagayama (NAOJ), M. Yoshida (Hiroshima),
K. Ohta (Kyoto) and N. Kawai(Tokyo Tech)
report on behalf of the MITSuME collaboration:

We observed the field of GRB 120212A (Sonbas et al., GCNC 12230)
with the optical three color (g', Rc and Ic) CCD camera attached
to the Murikabushi 1m telescope of Ishigakijima Astronomical
Observatory.

The observation started on 2012-02-12 12:27:12 UT (~3.3 h after the burst).
We detected the previously reported afterglow (Guidorzi et al.,GCNC 12932;
Kawabata et al., GCNC 12935; Yanagisawa et al., GCNC 12936) in Rc and Ic
bands.

Photometric results of the OT are listed below. We used GSC2.3 catalog
for flux calibration.

#T0+[day]  MID-UT    T-EXP[sec]   g'    Rc  Rc_err   Ic  Ic_err
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0.14653    12:42:22    780.0    >20.2  18.7 0.2     18.4 0.3
----------------------------------------------------------------------
T0+ : Elapsed time after the burst [day]
T-EXP: Total Exposure time [sec]

GCN Circular 12949

Subject
GRB 120212A: GMG optical observation
Date
2012-02-13T07:36:53Z (13 years ago)
From
Xiao-hong Zhao at Yunnan Obs <zhaoxiaohong78@gmail.com>
X.-H. Zhao (YNAO), D. Xu (WIS), J.-R. Mao (KASI/YNAO), J.-M. Bai 
(YNAO) report on behalf of a larger collaboration:

We observed the field of GRB 120212A (Sonbas et al., GCN 12930) with 2.4m Gao-Mei-Gu (GMG) telescope. Observations
started at 12:11:45 UT on 2012-02-12 (i.e., ~3 hrs after the burst) and 3x600s R-band images were obtained. The optical afterglow of this burst (Guidorzi et al., GCN 12932;
Hoversten et al., GCN 12933; Kawabata et al., GCN 12935; Kuin et al.,
GCN 12940; Xu et al., GCN 12941; Kuroda et al., GCN 12947) was detected. The results are as follows:

Comparison star: USNO-B Catalog 0720-0030593, R=18.31
UT(start time)    Mag.    Err.    Exposure time (second)
12:11:45.283      18.77   0.05      600
12:23:51.293      18.64   0.05      600
12:35:30.413      18.96   0.05      600
   
We thank the GMG staff, especially Ju-Jia Zhang, Jian-Quan He, and De-Qing Wang for
performing these observations.

GCN Circular 12950

Subject
GRB 120212A: Fermi GBM observation
Date
2012-02-13T09:19:34Z (13 years ago)
From
Arne Rau at MPE <arau@mpe.mpg.de>
Arne Rau (MPE) reports on behalf of the Fermi GBM Team:

"At 09:11:23.50 UT on 12 February 2012, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor
triggered and located GRB 120212A (trigger 350730685 / 120212383) which
was also detected by the Swift/BAT (Sonbas et al. 2012, GCN 12930).
The GBM on-ground location is consistent with the Swift position.

The angle from the Fermi LAT boresight is 53 degrees.

The GBM light curve shows/consists of a single peak
with a duration (T90) of about 9.2 s (50-300 keV).
The time-averaged spectrum from T0-3.1 s to T0+6.1 s is
best fit by a simple power law function with index -1.83 � 0.06

The event fluence (10-1000 keV) in this time interval is
(1.407 � 0.120)E-07 erg/cm^2. The 1.024-sec peak photon flux measured
starting from T0+0.64 s in the 10-1000 keV band
is 3.3 � 0.2 ph/s/cm^2.

The spectral analysis results presented above are preliminary;
final results will be published in the GBM GRB Catalog."

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