TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  8319
SUBJECT: GRB 081003A: Swift-XRT Team position and analysis 
DATE:    08/10/03 23:31:33 GMT
FROM:    Kim Page at U.of Leicester  <kpa@star.le.ac.uk>

K.L. Page, A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester) and H.A. Krimm (CRESST/GSFC/USRA) 
report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

Swift began observing the field of the INTEGRAL GRB 081003A (Mereghetti et 
al., GCN Circ. 8314) 7.6 ks after the trigger. In 1.8 ks of Photon 
Counting mode data, we detect a single source within the INTEGRAL error 
circle at a position of RA, Dec = 262.39082, 16.57103, which is equivalent 
to

RA(J2000):   17 29 33.80
Dec(J2000): +16 34 15.70

with an uncertainty of 3.9 arcsec (radius, 90% containment). The source 
has a count rate of ~0.026 during this observation.

The spectrum of the source can be fitted by an absorbed power-law, with 
Gamma = 3.6 +1.6/-1.2 and NH = (7 +6/-4)x10^21 cm^-2, compared to the 
Galctic value of 6.67x10^20 cm^-2. It is not possible to determine whether 
this source is fading given the current statistics.

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