TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12980 SUBJECT: GRB 120224A: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 12/02/24 04:51:10 GMT FROM: David Palmer at LANL C. J. Saxton (UCL-MSSL), J. R. Cummings (NASA/UMBC), N. P. M. Kuin (UCL-MSSL), A. Y. Lien (NASA/GSFC/ORAU), O. M. Littlejohns (U Leicester), C. B. Markwardt (NASA/GSFC), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), C. J. Mountford (U Leicester), S. R. Oates (UCL-MSSL), K. L. Page (U Leicester), D. M. Palmer (LANL), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), M. H. Siegel (PSU), C. A. Swenson (PSU) and T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 04:39:56 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 120224A (trigger=515976). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 40.975, -17.793 which is RA(J2000) = 02h 43m 54s Dec(J2000) = -17d 47' 32" 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 10 sec. The peak count rate was ~1200 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~2 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 04:41:45.6 UT, 109.1 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find an uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 40.94380, -17.75959 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 02h 43m 46.51s Dec(J2000) = -17d 45' 34.5" with an uncertainty of 3.9 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 160 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. We cannot determine whether the source is fading at the present time. A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event data gives a column density in excess of the Galactic value (2.45 x 10^20 cm^-2, Kalberla et al. 2005), with an excess column of 3.6 (+4.34/-3.51) x 10^21 cm^-2 (90% confidence). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 114 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 none of the XRT error circle. 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 0.04. Burst Advocate for this burst is C. J. Saxton (cjs2 AT mssl.ucl.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.)