[vsnet-grb 308529] New GCN Notice type: Actual pointing direction of Swift

[Bacodine]

TO:  All GCN Sites                                         
RE:  Swift_Actual_PointDir Notices Added
DT:  16 Nov 16

SWIFT_ACTUAL_POINTDIR NOTICE TYPE ADDED:
Swift has long had the SWIFT_POINTDIR notice type which contains
the pre-planned pointings for the Swift mission, and they are distributed
~30 sec before the beginning of the slew to that location.  But because
of on-board triggers and uploaded ToO's, the fraction of time
that Swift is not looking at the pre-planned location is ~9%. 
Now the SWIFT_ACTUAL_POINTDIR notice type has been added.  It contains
the actual pointing direction of the Swift spacecraft, and is distributed
~30 sec after the end of each slew to the new location.  This information
is derived from monitoring the real-time housekeeping information
coming down the TDRSS DAS link (24/7).

UTILITY OF THIS NOTICE TYPE:
This notice will: (a) allow automated instruments to "follow" the Swift
observation direction.  These instruments can then have a shorter
slew time themselves should there be a Swift-BAT burst detection, and
(b) allow people to monitor if/when their TOO request is being executed
or if their pre-planned observation was interrupted by an AT or TOO.
(This notice is blocked to public sites when Swift is observing LVC targets.)

OCCURRENCE RATE:
Since observations can be as short as ~90 sec (ie during special tiling operations)
to as long as ~45 minutes, there will be ~70-100 of these notices per day.

RELIABILITY:
Because this notice type is derived from the real-time TDRSS DAS link,
there will be holes in the sequence due to (a) gaps in this housekeeping
stream when a regular data downlink session is happening (ie 7-13 times per day
for 8-12 minutes each, ie 5-12%)), and (b) other gaps/outages in TDRSS (<1%).
A slew during a TDRSS gap is not lost (unless the observation is shorter
than the TDRS gap); rather, the new pointing direction is just reported late.

DISTRIBUTION METHODS:
This notice type (ike all the other types in GCN) is available by all the
socket-based (binary and voevent) and email-based.

CONTENTS and FORMATS:
A detailed description of this new notice type (and all the Swift Notices)
is found at:    http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn/swift.html
and for the socket sites, the packets are defined in:
http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn/sock_pkt_def_doc.html

ACTION ITEM:
If you want to receive these SWIFT_ACTUAL_POINTDIR notices,
please send me a request to have them enabled.  You can do this
by forwarding this email (which has your sitename identifier & current configuration)
to  sbarthel at milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov .
OR
You can go to  http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn/config_builder.html
and select "#2 Modify an existing config" (and type in your sitename).
You can also take this opportunity to make other changes to your configuration.


REMINDER OF RECENT ADDITIONS TO GCN:
In case you have missed them, here is a brief list of the most recent additions
to the GCN system.  You might consider signing up for these Notice types as well.
The full announcements/descriptions for each of these can be found at:
http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn/whats_new.html
AMON_ICECUBE_EHE  (July 2016)          // ICECUBE Extreme High Energy events
AMON_ICECUBE_HESE  (Apr 2016)          // ICECUBE High Energy Starting Events
CALET_LC  (Mar 2016)                   // The Flight- & Ground-produced CALET-GBM lightcurves 
SNEWS  (Dec 2015)                      // SNEWS neutrino coincidences and singles from supernovae
2nd VOEvent Ver 2.0 server (Nov 2015)  // A redundant Ver 2.0 VOevent server added
FERMI_GBM LOCATION MAPS (Apr 2014)     // GBM Location_Map URL available
FERMI_GBM_LIGHTCURVE (Apr 2014)        // GBM Lightcurve URL available
FERMI_LAT_OFFLINE (Feb 2014)           // LAT detections found in off-line ground processing
SUZAKU_LIGHTCURVE (Nov 2013)           // Lightcurves from Suzaku-WAM
IPN_RAW resumes (Aug 2012)             // IPN Team resumes producing the IPN_RAW notices
SWIFT_BAT_SUB_SUB_THRESHOLD (May 2012) // Swift-BAT Triggers with very low significance; use for temporal coincidences
VOEvent Direct Server (Mar 2012)       // Added 3 VOEvent servers to allow for direct distribution of VOEvents
FERMI_LAT_MON/_TRANS (Aug 2011)        // Flare-ups from known sources monitored by Fermi-LAT & non-GRB transients
FERMI_LAT_GND (Aug 2011)               // Automated ground processing to get GRB positions


Sincerely,

Scott Barthelmy                      NASA-GSFC, Code 661, Greenbelt, MD   20771
PHONE:  301-286-3106                 (office)
PHONE:  301-346-3733                 (cell)
EMAIL:  scott at milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov
PAGER:  3013463733 at cingularme.com
WEB:    http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn


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SITE_NAME  VSNET
DATES      25jun05   23oct07
SITE_LON_LAT   135.75   35.00
DIST_METHOD   EMAIL
DIST_ADDRESS  vsnet-grb at ooruri.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp
POC_NAME      Daisaku Nogami
POC_ADDRESS   vsnet-grb at ooruri.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp
DAILY_REPORT_ENABLE   0
DAILY_REPORT_ADDRESS  vsnet-grb at ooruri.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp
CONFIG_REPORT         0
# Site-specific items:
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INTENSITY      -1.000
ERROR          360.1000
DELAY          999.9
SIGNIFICANCE   0.00
CONF_LEVEL     0.00
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ATTACHMENT     NONE
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# Type-specific items:
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INTEGRAL_SPIACS
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INTEGRAL_REFINED  sim_ned=0
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SWIFT_BAT_GRB_ALERT
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SWIFT_BAT_GRB_LC  trig_id=0
SWIFT_FOM_2OBS  trig_id=0
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SWIFT_UVOT_POS  inten=99.000
SWIFT_UVOT_IMAGE
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SWIFT_UVOT_SRCLIST
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SWIFT_POINTDIR
SWIFT_TOO_FOM
SWIFT_TOO_SLEW
END_SITE