TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 8609 SUBJECT: GRB081203A: Swift-XRT refined analysis DATE: 08/12/04 08:56:13 GMT FROM: Valentina La Parola at INAF-IASPA V. La Parola, B. Sbarufatti, V. Mangano (INAF-IASF Pa), A. Parsons (GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift XRT team: We have analysed the first 3 orbits of Swift-XRT data obtained for GRB 081203A (trigger #336489, Parsons et al., GCN Circ.8595), that includes 550 s of Windowed Timing (WT) and 15.5 ks of Photon Counting (PC) mode data, respectively, between 87 s and 16 ks after the trigger. The UVOT-enhanced XRT position was given by Evans et al. in GCN Circ 8598. The light-curve can be modelled with a broken power-law, with a steep decay alpha_1=4.32 ± 0.16 and a break time at T_b=T0+(150+/-3) s. After the break the decay flattens to alpha_2=1.175 ± 0.015 The spectrum extracted from the WT data has an exposure of 558 s. It can be modelled with an absorbed power-law, with Gamma =1.97 ± 0.04 and an intrinsic NH = (5.5 ± 0.8)x10^20 cm-2, in excess to the Galactic value of 1.7x10^20 cm-2. The observed (unabsorbed) 0.3 -10 keV averaged flux over this time interval is 8.6x10^-10 (10x10^-10) erg cm-2 s-1. The spectrum extracted from the PC data in the time interval 0.6-16 ks (with an exposure time of 4.7 ks) can be modelled with an absorbed power-law, with Gamma = 2.1 ± 0.08 and an intrinsic column density of NH = (6.0 ± 1.7)x10^20 cm-2. The observed (unabsorbed) 0.3 -10 keV averaged flux over this time interval is 2.8x10^-11 (3.6x10^-11) erg cm-2 s-1. Uncertainties are given at 90% confidence. If the light-curve continues to decay with the present rate, the count rate 24 (36) hours after the burst is estimated to be 0.02 (0.013) count s-1, which corresponds to an observed flux of 7x10^-13 (4.5x10^-13) erg cm-2 s-1. The results of the xrt automatic analysis are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00336489. This is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.