[vsnet-grb 15223] New Sun Distance field added to GCN Notices

[Bacodine]

All Full-Format Email GCN Sites,                            18 Jan 06

A new field is being added to the GCN Notices.  This field contains
the difference in the RA of the GRB and the RA of the Sun.  This will
guide follow-up observes on where the burst is with respect to the Sun
and therefore provide of measure of "morning object" vs "evening object"
and how much observing time there is during the night.

Obviously, this RA Difference is not a perfect measure because the
declination of the burst and the observer's lattitude enter into
this process of when-and-how-long-it-can be observed, but it does
provide a better measure than just the current SUN_DIST value
which has been in the Notices for many years.  (The SUN_DIST is just
the spherical-trig angular distance (in degrees) between the two RA,Dec
locations on the sky.)

This new value is appended onto the SUN_DIST line in the the regular
full-format email Notices.  See an example below.  The units are hours
and a suffix phrase "East of Sun" or "West of Sun" tells which way 
the burst position is wrt the Sun.

This new field will be added to all notice types from all missions
that contain a burst location or a pointing_direction.  This applies
to only the full-format email notices.  Nothing will be added
to the pager/cellphone formats or the socket packets.

This new addition will become active later today (or possibly tomorrow).

My apologies to those people who have set up scripts to parse 
these incoming emails.  This added field may break some of your scripts.

Sincerely,
Scott


Scott Barthelmy                      NASA-GSFC, Code 661, Greenbelt, MD   20771
PHONE:  301-286-3106                 (office)
PHONE:  301-346-3733                 (cell)
FAX:    301-286-1684                 (1st choice,  -1682 2nd choice)
EMAIL:  scott at lheamail.gsfc.nasa.gov
PAGER:  3013463733 at mmode.com
WEB:    http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn

////////////////////////////// Example Full-Format Email ////////////////////////
TITLE:           GCN/SWIFT NOTICE
NOTICE_DATE:     Wed 18 Jan 06 17:00:02 UT
NOTICE_TYPE:     Swift-BAT GRB Position
TRIGGER_NUM:     176818,   Seg_Num: 0
GRB_RA:          276.212d {+18h 24m 51s} (J2000),
                 276.264d {+18h 25m 03s} (current),
                 275.785d {+18h 23m 08s} (1950)
GRB_DEC:         +37.602d {+37d 36' 08"} (J2000),
                 +37.606d {+37d 36' 21"} (current),
                 +37.573d {+37d 34' 23"} (1950)
GRB_ERROR:       3.00 [arcmin radius, statistical only]
GRB_INTEN:       2953 [cnts]    Image_Peak=149 [image_cnts]
TRIGGER_DUR:     0.512 [sec] 
TRIGGER_INDEX:   124     E_range: 25-100 keV
BKG_INTEN:       35747 [cnts]
BKG_TIME:        15775.05 SOD {04:22:55.05} UT
BKG_DUR:         8 [sec]
GRB_DATE:        13746 TJD;    11 DOY;   06/01/11
GRB_TIME:        15786.12 SOD {04:23:06.12} UT
GRB_PHI:         -34.11 [deg]
GRB_THETA:        17.98 [deg]
SOLN_STATUS:     0x3
RATE_SIGNIF:     13.49 [sigma]
IMAGE_SIGNIF:    7.47 [sigma]
MERIT_PARAMS:     +1  +0  +0  +0  +2 +12  +0  +0 -47  +1 
SUN_POSTN:       300.58d {+20h 02m 19s}  -20.47d {-20d 28' 02"}
SUN_DIST:         62.42 [deg]   Sun_angle= 1.6 [hr] (West of Sun)
MOON_POSTN:      167.17d {+11h 08m 41s}   +7.45d {+07d 26' 55"}
MOON_DIST:       100.24 [deg]
MOON_ILLUM:      84 [%]
GAL_COORDS:       65.43, 21.09 [deg] galactic lon,lat of the burst (or transient)
ECL_COORDS:      280.13, 60.82 [deg] ecliptic lon,lat of the burst (or transient)
COMMENTS:        SWIFT-BAT GRB Coordinates.  
COMMENTS:        This is a rate trigger.  
COMMENTS:        A point_source was found.  
COMMENTS:        This does not match any source in the on-board catalog.  
COMMENTS:        This does not match any source in the ground catalog.  
COMMENTS:        This is a GRB.  
COMMENTS:        This trigger occurred at longitude,latitude = 148.61,7.12 [deg].  


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