TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 10916 SUBJECT: GRB 100702A: Swift detection of a short burst DATE: 10/07/02 01:23:20 GMT FROM: David Palmer at LANL M. H. Siegel (PSU), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), D. N. Burrows (PSU), J. M. Gelbord (PSU), D. Grupe (PSU), S. T. Holland (CRESST/USRA/GSFC), J. A. Kennea (PSU), D. M. Palmer (LANL) and T. N. Ukwatta (GSFC/GWU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 01:03:47 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 100702A (trigger=426438). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 245.702, -56.538 which is RA(J2000) = 16h 22m 49s Dec(J2000) = -56d 32' 15" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed a single peak with a duration of about 0.3 sec. The peak count rate was ~11000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0.2 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 01:05:21.1 UT, 93.9 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright, fading, uncatalogued X-ray source with an enhanced position: RA, Dec 245.6969, -56.5316 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 16h 22m 47.26s Dec(J2000) = -56d 31' 53.8" with an uncertainty of 2.4 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 24 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 2.84e+21 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al. 2005). The initial flux in the 2.5 s image was 9.31e-10 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10 keV). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 101 seconds after the BAT trigger. The 2.7'x2.7' sub-image covers 100% of the XRT error circle. A known source from the DSS is within the XRT error circle. However, because of the density of catalogued stars, further analysis is required to determine if this is the GRB host, afterglow or an unrelated background source. The coverage of the XRT error circle by the 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated on-board is uncertain because the large number of sources filled the available telemetry. Because of the density of catalogued stars, further analysis is required to report an upper limit for any afterglow in the region. No correction has been made for the large, but uncertain extinction expected. Burst Advocate for this burst is M. H. Siegel (siegel AT astro.psu.edu). 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.)