A Low-latency Pipeline for GRB Light Curve and Spectrum using Fermi/GBM Near Real-time Data

• Published in: arXiv.org 2018-02
• Main Authors: Zhao, Yi, Zhang, Binbin, Xiong, Shaolin, Long, Xi, Zhang, Qiang, Song, Liming, Sun, Jianchao, Wang, Yuanhao, Li, Hancheng, Bu, Qingcui, Feng, Minzi, Li, Zhengheng, Xing Wen, Wu, Bobing, Zhang, Laiyu, Zhang, Yongjie, Zhang, Shuangnan, Shao, Jianxiong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astronomy; Fluence; Gamma ray bursts; Gamma rays; Gravitational waves; Light curve; Pipelines; Polarimeters; Real time
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1802.09271

Rapid response and short time latency are very important for Time Domain Astronomy, such as the observations of Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) and electromagnetic (EM) counterparts of gravitational waves (GWs). Based on the near real-time Fermi/GBM data, we developed a low-latency pipeline to automatically calculate the temporal and spectral properties of GRBs. With this pipeline, some important parameters can be obtained, such as T90 and fluence, within ~20 minutes after the GRB trigger. For ~90% GRBs, T90 and fluence are consistent with the GBM catalog results within 2 sigma errors. This pipeline has been used by the Gamma-ray Bursts Polarimeter (POLAR) and the Insight Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) to follow up the bursts of interest. For GRB 170817A, the first EM counterpart of GW events detected by Fermi/GBM and INTEGRAL/SPI-ACS, the pipeline gave T90 and spectral information in 21 minutes after the GBM trigger, providing important information for POLAR and Insight-HXMT observations.