TO: All GCN Notice recipients RE: AGILE Notice types are available DT: 02 Jul 08 INTRODUCTION The GCN system has been modified to incorporate the distribution of positions of GRBs detected by the SuperAGILE instrument on the AGILE spacecraft. Currently, there are only Notices of SuperAGILE detections; the GRID instrument has not fully developed the detection processing yet. About 5-10 times per year, there will be a GRB in the FOV (field of view) of the SuperAGILE instrument that is bright enough to be localized. AGILE transmits these localizations through the ORBCOMM system to the ground within 30 min after the trigger. The SuperAGILE team processes these messages and sends them to GCN. If that burst position meets the site's filtering criteria, then it gets that Notice. Prior to this, the SuperAGILE team has been using only the Circulars to distribute their burst detections. Now with the Notices, it will be easier for the automated telescopes to make folow-up observations. Like all the other sources of GRB information within the GCN system, users can elect to receive (or not) each of these SuperAGILE Notice types. ACTION ITEM: If, after reviewing the information below, you want to receive these AGILE Position notice types, please send me a request to have them enabled. You can do this by forwarding this email to scott@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov NOTICE TYPES, CONTENT, and PURPOSE There are 4 SuperAGILE Notice types. They are: 1) Wakeup Position Notice contains the RA,Dec location for the burst detected by SuperAGILE. They are issued 0 or 1 times per burst. Since the Wakeup position is based on the least-possible amount of data in the processing (just a small initial portion of the burst's lightcurve), it has the lowest significance in the localization process. The uncertainty in the position is ~30 arcmin for the bursts. 2) Ground Position Notice contains the RA,Dec location that has undergone further automated analysis and processing on the ground. They are issued 0 or 1 times per burst. This reduces the location uncertainty range to 3 arcmin. The downlinking and the automated processing means the total time delay is 1-2 hours. 3) Refined Position Notice: For some bursts, a third and final notice will be generated when humans have gotten into the loop and made some improvement (refinement) into the location calculation. The typical time delay ranges from 2 to 5 hours. They are issued 0 or 1 times per burst (and on rare occaisions more than 1 per burst). 4) Test Notice is identical in format and content to the 3 Position Notices except that the test notices contain computer-generated RA,Dec locations and all the other fields. These test notices are generated by the GCN computer every ~3.6 hrs. They allow the receiving site to practice on the Position Notice types. SITION TYPES, ERRORS, and TIME_DELAYS: The automated on-board SuperAGILE flight software will generate GRB position notifications in real time. (In addition, human-involved analyses of the data may sometimes result in a revised position within a few hours after the burst.) The timescales and localization precisions of the various notice types are as follows: TIME SINCE LOCATION TYPE BURST PRECISION COMMENTS ========= ============ ========== ======== Wakeup ~30 min ~30 arcmin On-board procesing Ground 1-2 hrs 3 arcmin Ground processing Refined ~2-5 hr 3 arcmin Humans in the loop SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES: The sequence of activities for a typical burst follows: 1) The SuperAGILE instrument detects a burst (a trigger). 2) The Wakeup message is generated and transmitted. 3) Then after some ground processing, the Ground message is generated and sent. 4) And finally, after further ground processing (usually involving humans in the loop), a Refined message is generated and sent. THE SUPERAGILE-to-GCN-to-WORLD PROCEDURE: All 3 types of SuperAGILE messages go through or originate in the SuperAGILE intrument operations and are then set to GCN. GCN reformats the messages into the standard GCN_Notice formats, and distributes them to the sites using the usual distribution methods and filtering. The additional time_delay for the GCN processing is never more than 0.2 sec. ARCHIVE STORAGE: The GCN/AGILE Notices are archived within the GCN website in the Table of AGILE GRBs. http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn/agile_grbs.html MORE INFORMATION: Can be found at: http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn/agile.html NOTICE EXAMPLE: Here is an example of a full-format email SuperAGILE Wake-up Notice: TITLE: GCN/SuperAGILE NOTICE NOTICE_DATE: Sat 17 May 08 15:17:39 UT NOTICE_TYPE: SuperAGILE GRB Ground Position TRIGGER_NUM: 474 GRB_RA: 321.638d {+21h 26m 33s} (J2000), 321.738d {+21h 26m 57s} (current), 321.002d {+21h 24m 01s} (1950) GRB_DEC: +1.788d {+01d 47' 17"} (J2000), +1.822d {+01d 49' 21"} (current), +1.571d {+01d 34' 14"} (1950) GRB_ERROR: 3.00 [arcmin radius, statistical plus systematic] GRB_INTEN: 2707.347 1383.584 [X & Y cnts] GRB_SIGNIF: 16.50 12.15 [sigma] GRB_DATE: 14467 TJD; 02 DOY; 08/01/02 GRB_TIME: 50795.30 SOD {14:06:35.30} UT SUN_POSTN: 54.83d {+03h 39m 20s} +19.51d {+19d 30' 50"} SUN_DIST: 92.31 [deg] Sun_angle= 6.2 [hr] (West of Sun) MOON_POSTN: 206.72d {+13h 46m 52s} -15.98d {-15d 58' 30"} MOON_DIST: 114.53 [deg] MOON_ILLUM: 95 [%] GAL_COORDS: 54.83,-32.88 [deg] galactic lon,lat of the burst (or transient) ECL_COORDS: 324.61, 15.98 [deg] ecliptic lon,lat of the burst (or transient) COMMENTS: SuperAGILE GRB Coordinates. COMMENTS: This is a GRB. (Please note that the actual values in this example are made up.) The socket packets contents can be found at: http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn/sock_pkt_def_doc.html Sincerely, Scott Scott Barthelmy NASA-GSFC, Code 661, Greenbelt, MD 20771 PHONE: 301-286-3106 (office) CELL: 301-346-3733 FAX: 301-286-1684 (1st choice, -1682 2nd choice) EMAIL: scott@lheamail.gsfc.nasa.gov PAGER: 3013463733@cingularme.com WEB: http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn y