[vsnet-grb 80849] New GCN Notice type: SIMBAD NED search Results

Bacodine vxw at capella.gsfc.nasa.gov
Fri Aug 22 02:41:24 JST 2008


TO:  All GCN Notice recipients
RE:  SIMBAD_NED Notice type is available
DT:  21 Aug 08


INTRODUCTION:

A new type of Notice type has been added to GCN.
It contains the results of SIMBAD and NED searches
on positions of GRBs reported by other missions.

Whenever one of the Mission-Instrument GRB Position notices is distributed,
a search is made of the SIMBAD and NED databases.
The radius of that search is dependant upon the source of the position
(eg. 10 arcmin for Swift-BAT positions and 1 arcmin for Swift-XRT Positions).

Like all the other sources of GRB information within the GCN system,
users can elect to receive (or not) this SIMBAD-NED Notice type.


NOTICE CONTENT and PURPOSE:

The notice contains:
the Type of Notice that originated the search,
the Trigger Number (or other mission-dependent dentifying designation),
and the RA,Dec location of the burst in the originating notice.
Then comes two lists: the SIMBAD search results and the NED search results.
A sample of the E-mail format notice is listed below.

This contents of this notice can be used to search for possible associations;
espcially if the given trigger is not due to GRB.


ORIGINATING NOTICE TYPES and SEARCH RADII:

The table below contains the various GRB Position Notice Types
that can originate a SIMBAD-NED search.
The search radius of the searches is related to the uncertainty
in the location of the originating notice type.

   BASED ON THE NOTICE TYPE           SEARCH RADIUS [arcmin]

   INTEGRAL Wakeup                      10
   INTEGRAL Refined                     10
   INTEGRAL Offline                     10

   Swift-BAT Position                   10
   Swift-XRT Position                    1
   Swift-BAT SubThreshold Position      10
   Swift-BAT Slew Position              10

   SuperAGILE Wakeup Position           10
   SuperAGILE Ground Position           10
   SuperAGILE Refined Position          10

   GLAST-LAT Initial Position           20
   GLAST-LAT Update Position            20
   GLAST-LAT Diagnostic Position  (tbd) 20
   GLAST-LAT Reference Position         20
   GLAST-LAT Ground_Trigger Position    20

   RXTE ASM GRB Position                20
   RXTE PCA GRB Position                20

   IPN Position                         20

   GRB_COUNTERPART                      10


Note that:
1) The GLAST-GBM does not initiate a SIMBAD_NED Notice,
because the error radius is too large.
2) The Swift-UVOT_Position Notice does not initiate a SIMBAD_NED Notice,
because for nearly every UVOT_POS there is always an XRT_POS (which initiates
its own SIMBAD_NED Notice).
3) None of the mission-based Test Notices initiate SIMBAD_NED Notices,
because they would not have much scientific utility.
4) None of the mission-based Pointing_Dir Notices initiate SIMBAD_NED Notices,
because they would not have much scientific utility.


SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES:
The sequence of activities for a typical burst follows:
1) One of the Notice types in the above table is generated and distributed.
2) Search requests are made to the SIMBAD and NED databases.
3) The results of those searches are received back to GCN. (Delay is about 20 sec)
4) They are reformated into a more compact and GCN-like format.
5) The enable/disable flags of each entry in the sites.cfg file
is tested to see if that site is enabled for the Originating notice type AND this SIMBAD-NED type;
and if so, then the SIMBAD-NED notice is distributed to that site (full-format email sites only).


FORMATS:
This is available ONLY in the full-format email notice.
It is NOT available in the pager/cellphone formats,
because the content is too large for those small formats.
It is NOT available in socket packets,
because the variable content nature of this notice does not lend itself
to the fixed-format type of the socket packets.


FILTERING:
Sites can elect to receive this SIMBAD-NED Notice type.
Unlike the other GCN Notices which are standalone, this one is "paired" with
already existing Notice types.  That is (for example): if you have 
the Swift-BAT Position type enabled but not the XRT Position type,
and you have the SIMBAD-NED type enabled, then you will get 
the SIMBAD-NED Notice whenever a Swift-BAT Notice is distributed,
but you will not get one when a Swift-XRT_Position Notice is distributed.


ACTION ITEM:
If you want to receive this SIMBAD_NED notice type,
please send me a request to have it enabled.  (And/or if you have
any other changes to your configuration.)
You can do this by forwarding this email to  scott at milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov
marking which items in your configuration you want changed.


FULL-FORMAT E-MAIL EXAMPLE:
Two examples of the SIMBAD-NED Notice type (e-mail format) is shown below.
Note that for the XRT_Pos-based search, there were no objects in the NED search.
For the small radii searchs, the null result is common. 
The "====" divider bar is NOT part of the messages.


   TITLE:        GCN/SIMBAD_NED NOTICE
   NOTICE_DATE:  Sat Jun 14 16:22:57 UTC 2008
   NOTICE_TYPE:  Swift-BAT Position search
   TRIGGER_NUM:  303105
   RA:           231.107 (J2000)
   DEC:          -22.752 (J2000)
 
   SIMBAD search for BAT_RA,Dec=231.107,-22.752,dist=10.0arcmin
 
   Num   RA         Dec                    Name                      Type  Num_Pub  Distance

    1 231.14750000 -22.74152778                  GRB 080212             gB  17      2.33
    2 231.14750000 -22.74152778                  GRB 080212             gB  17      2.33
    3 231.04723042 -22.72401389                   HD 136941             IR   0      3.71
    4 231.04166667 -22.77972222           WISH B1521.2-2236            Rad   0      3.98
    5 231.20562500 -22.76602778                   SN 2002dh            SN*   3      5.52
    6 231.20654167 -22.76408333  [WAN2002g] J152449.57-224550.7          G   1      5.56
    7 231.20290833 -22.78028056       1RXS J152448.7-224649              X   0      5.57
    8 230.97500000 -22.66666667                  OHIO R -235           Rad   1      8.92
    9 231.26023667 -22.69627250                  BD-22 3952             IR   0      9.12
   10 231.09408083 -22.60014972              TYC 6763-373-1             IR   0      9.14
   11 231.27501042 -22.74995528              TYC 6763-116-1             IR   0      9.30
 
 
 
   NED search for BAT_RA,Dec=231.107,-22.752,dist=10.0arcmin
 
   Num      RA           Dec       Name                             Type      Distance

    1     231.042500   -22.774528  NVSS J152410-224628             , RadioS   3.80
    2     231.183917   -22.779194  2MASX J15244414-2246453         , IrS      4.60
    3     231.051250   -22.809972  NVSS J152412-224835             , RadioS   4.60
    4     231.204708   -22.767972  [WAN2002a] J152449.13-224604.7  , G        5.50
    5     231.205625   -22.766028  SN 2002dh                       , SN       5.50
    6     231.107792   -22.852444  2MASXi J1524258-225108          , IrS      6.00
    7     230.997167   -22.723667  2MASX J15235932-2243254         , IrS      6.30
    8     231.001000   -22.651472  NVSS J152400-223905             , RadioS   8.40

   =========================================================================================

   TITLE:        GCN/SIMBAD_NED NOTICE
   NOTICE_DATE:  Sat Jun 14 16:23:32 UTC 2008
   NOTICE_TYPE:  Swift-XRT Position search
   TRIGGER_NUM:  303105
   RA:           231.1475 (J2000)
   DEC:          -22.7414 (J2000)
 
   SIMBAD search for XRT_RA,Dec=231.147,-22.741,dist=1.0arcmin
 
   Num   RA         Dec                    Name                      Type  Num_Pub  Distance

    1 231.14750000 -22.74152778                  GRB 080212             gB  17      0.04
 
 
 
   NED search for XRT_RA,Dec=231.1475,-22.7414,dist=1.0arcmin
 
   Num      RA           Dec       Name                            Type      Distance
    0                                                                        0.00




MORE INFORMATION:
Can be found at: http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn/simbad_ned.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 at lheamail.gsfc.nasa.gov
PAGER:  3013463733 at cingularme.com
WEB:    http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn

///////////////////////////// Your Current Configuration ////////////////////////


Site_name: VSNET
Lon,Lat=  135.75   35.00
Distribution_method: EMAIL  Attachment_format: NONE
Address: vsnet-grb at ooruri.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp   
Filter:  ALL
Error_limit=   360.100 [deg, diameter]
Delta_T_limit= 999.900 [hr]
Swift_Trigger_ID_filter:   Disabled
Sources & Notice Types/Subtypes:
    RXTE-PCA_Alert_wont:      Enabled
    RXTE-PCA_Alert_will:      Enabled
    RXTE-PCA_nosaw:           Enabled
    RXTE-PCA_saw:             Enabled
    RXTE-ASM:                 Enabled
    IPN_POS:                  Enabled
    RXTE-ASM_TRANS:           Enabled
    HETE_TEST:                Disabled
    TYPE2_TEST:               Disabled
    INTEGRAL_Test_notices:    Disabled
    SWIFT_BAT_GRB_TEST:       Disabled
    AGILE_GRB_TEST:           Disabled
    GLAST_GBM_TEST:           Disabled
    GLAST_LAT_TEST:           Disabled
    INTEGRAL_POINTDIR:        Disabled
    INTEGRAL_SPIACS:          Enabled
    INTEGRAL_WAKEUP:          Enabled
    INTEGRAL_REFINED:         Enabled
    INTEGRAL_OFFLINE:         Enabled
    GRB_CNTRPART:             Disabled
    MILAGRO_POS:              Disabled
    SWIFT_BAT_GRB_ALERT:      enabled
    SWIFT_BAT_GRB_POS:        enabled
    SWIFT_BAT_GRB_POS_NACK:   enabled
    SWIFT_BAT_SUBTHRESH_POS:  Disabled
    SWIFT_BAT_GRB_LIGHTCURVE: enabled
    SWIFT_FOM_2OBS:           enabled
    SWIFT_SC_2SLEW:           enabled
    SWIFT_XRT_POS:            enabled
    SWIFT_XRT_POS_NACK:       enabled
    SWIFT_XRT_SPECTRUM:       enabled
    SWIFT_XRT_IMAGE:          enabled
    SWIFT_XRT_LIGHTCURVE:     enabled
    SWIFT_UVOT_IMAGE:         enabled
    SWIFT_UVOT_SRCLIST:       enabled
    SWIFT_UVOT_POS:           enabled
    SWIFT_UVOT_POS_NACK:      Disabled
    SWIFT_BAT_GRB_LC_PROC:    enabled
    SWIFT_XRT_SPECTRUM_PROC:  enabled
    SWIFT_XRT_IMAGE_PROC:     enabled
    SWIFT_UVOT_IMAGE_PROC:    enabled
    SWIFT_UVOT_SRCLIST_PROC:  enabled
    SWIFT_FULL_DATA_INIT:     enabled
    SWIFT_FULL_DATA_UPDATE:   enabled
    SWIFT_POINTDIR:           enabled
    SWIFT_BAT_TRANS:          Disabled
    SWIFT_BAT_SLEW_POS:       Disabled
    AGILE_GRB_WAKEUP_POS:     Disabled
    AGILE_GRB_GROUND_POS:     Disabled
    AGILE_GRB_REFINED_POS:    Disabled
    AGILE_POINTDIR:           Disabled
    SIMBAD-NED:               Disabled


General Adminastrivia Comments/Suggestions:

1) When requesting changes to your configuration,
it helps if you refer to your site_name.
2) If your site has more than one recipient (ie a list),
please review the list to see if anybody should be deleted;
(the volume of bounce-back-to-gcn emails gets large after a while).
3) If a new contact_person has taken over for the project, please inform me.
4) If your site is no longer active, please inform me.



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