IPNGRB - Gamma-Ray Bursts from the Interplanetary Network

Overview

The Interplanetary Network (IPN) is a group of spacecraft equipped with gamma-ray burst detectors used to localize gamma-ray bursts (GRB) and soft gamma repeaters (SGRs, or magnetars). The astronomical locations of GRBs are determined by the comparison of the arrival times of the event at the locations of the detectors used on different space missions. The precision is proportional to the distance of spacecraft separations, so that the localizational accuracy of a network with baselines of thousands of light-seconds can be equal or superior to that of any other technique.

The primary disadvantage of the IPN method, however, is the 1-day to 1.5-day delay in the acquisition of data from all the spacecraft in the network. Interplanetary GRB networks have been in existence since 1977, contributing to the studies of various astrophysical gamma-ray transients, most notably GRBs and SGRs (soft gamma repeaters).

The IPN3 began operations in 1990, with the launch of the Ulysses spacecraft. It was joined by the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory in 1991. Pioneer Venus Orbiter, Mars Observer, and the Italian X-ray astronomy satellite BeppoSAX were part of the network while they were operating. Twenty-six experiments or missions have joined the network so far. Today, the main spacecrafts contributing their data are Konus-WIND, Mars Odyssey, INTEGRAL, RHESSI, Swift, Agile, BepiColombo, and Fermi. XMM-Newton and MAXI are kept to record the cosmic ray and SGR but not used for triangulation because of the different energy range.

The IPNGRB database table is derived from a list provided by Kevin Hurley <khurley@ssl.berkeley.edu>, based on the IPN3. The initial list also includes particles and solar events as well as unconfirmed SGRs and GRBs. The IPNGRB database includes only the observations of confirmed cosmic gamma-ray bursts and SGR since the launch of the Ulysses spacecraft. It is updated every time a new list is provided to the HEASARC.

Bulletin

The IPNGRB database table was last updated on 17 February 2022.

Provenance

This HEASARC catalog is derived from the master list of IPN3 events provided by Kevin Hurley. He also provided a FORTRAN program that generates the list of selected events. The output of this program is run at GSFC and ingested into the HEASARC database system. Information on the IPN3 system is available at http://ipn3.ssl.berkeley.edu/.

Information on the IPN can be found at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/missions/ipn.html.

In December 2021 Kevin Hurley passed away. He was one of the initiator of the IPN and its evolution. The last table provided is dated August 2021.

Description

This database table contains the time of the event and the response of each of the IPN satellites to it. Since the time of the event may not be the time at Earth, the satellite from which the time is derived is also given. The list does not contain coordinates with the positions of the gamma-ray burst. There are 31 satellites considered in the IPN3, however not all are currently operating and not all have operated simultaneously. Bursts that were observed only by BATSE are not listed here. The BATSE bursts are available from the HEASARC database's Browse interface, https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/W3Browse/w3browse.pl, by selecting the CGRO mission. Similarly, there are no events that are marked as Swift only or Fermi only.

The table below gives an overview of the bursts in this database table and the number of satellites that have seen the events. There are 9242 confirmed cosmic events (complete through late August 2021) and detections of 15 Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters (SGRs). Note that there are only ten events detected by at least 9 possible satellites.


                                   N=1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10   11   12   13   14   15   16
  9242 CONFIRMED COSMIC EVENTS    1043 3147 2238 1467  764  366  169   37    9    1    0    0    0    0    0    0
    15 SOFT GAMMA REPEATERS          5    5    5    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
   708 SGR1806-20                  534  117   38   12    4    3    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
   120 SGR1900+14                   12   73   27    6    1    1    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
    53 SGR1627-41                   10   23   20    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
   126 SGR0501+45                  103   17    4    2    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
     2 SGR0418                       0    1    1    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0

Parameters

Event_Number
A sequential number associated to each events. This is not a unique identifier of the burst number. I.e., further updates can have a different number associated to the same event. This should be regarded only as an index for the table.

Time
The date and time of the event.

Date_Event
The date of the event as day month and year (e.g. 11 NOV 90).

Day_Year
The day of the year of when the event occurred.

Time_Event
The time of the event as HH:MM:SS (e.g. 21:49:02).

Second
The number of seconds from the beginning of the day until when the event occurred.

Num_Sat
This parameter reports the satellite number to which the time of the event refers. Note: Unless the satellite is in low Earth orbit, this time will not be the time on Earth. The satellites are numbered as follows: 1-Ulysses, 2-BATSE/GRO, 3-OSSE/GRO, 4-Comptel/GRO, 5-EGRET/GRO, 6-Pioneer Venus Orbiter, 7-GINGA, 8-Defense Meteor. Sat. Program, 9-WATCH/Granat, 10-SIGMA/Granat, 11-PHEBUS/Granat, 12-Coronas, 13-Yohkoh, 14- WATCH/EURECA, 15-Mars Observer/Odyssey, 16-TGRS/WIND, 17-KONUS/WIND, 18-BeppoSAX, 19-HETE2, 20-SROSS C-2, 21-NEAR, 23-RHESSI, 24-INTEGRAL, 25-Swift, 26-MESSENGER_BCOLOMBO, 27-Suzaku, 28-Agile, 29-Fermi,30-XMM-Newton,CALET, Insight, GECAM, AstroSat and 31-MAXI.

Earth_Cross
The Earth crossing window in seconds.

Venus_Cross
The Venus crossing window in seconds.

Mars_Cross
The Mars crossing window in seconds.

Ulysses_Cross
The Ulysses crossing window in seconds.

Event_ID
The events in this databases are either confirmed cosmic events or SGRs. The EVENT_ID parameter can have only the following values: "CONF. COSMIC", "SGR1806-20", "SGR1900+14", "SGR1627-41","SGR0501+45","SGR0418"

Ulysses
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

Ulysses was a NASA/ESA joint mission launched 6 October 1990 and decommissioned on 30 June 2009. Ulysses last contribution to the IPN is dated 2007 December 30.

Lifetime: 6 October 1990 - 30 June 2009

BATSE_GRO
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

BATSE (20-1000 keV) was one of the instruments of CGRO. Lifetime: 5 April 1991 - 4 June 2000.

OSSE_GRO
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

OSSE (0.05-10 MeV) was one of the instruments of CGRO. Lifetime: 5 April 1991 - 4 June 2000.

Comptel_GRO
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

COMPTEL (0.8-30 MeV) was one of the instruments of CGRO. Lifetime: 5 April 1991 - 4 June 2000.

Egret_GRO
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

EGRET (30MeV-10 GeV) was one of the instruments of CGRO. Lifetime: 5 April 1991 - 4 June 2000.

PVO
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

Pioneer Venus Orbiter (0.1-2 MeV) is no longer operating. Lifetime: 20 May 1978 - 8 October 1992.

Gbd_Ginga
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

The GINGA Gamma-ray Burst Detector (1.5-500 keV) was one of the instruments of GINGA. Lifetime: 5 February 1987 - 1 November 1991.

DMS
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

The Defense Meteorological Satellites are a series of satellites. The last satellites that contributed to the IPN network was DMSP F13 launched on 24 March 1995 from which a burst was detected on 28 September 2001.

Watch_Granat
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

WATCH (6-120 keV) was one of the experiments on board Granat. Lifetime: 1 December 1989 - 27 November 1998.

Sigma_Granat
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

SIGMA (0.03-1.3 MeV) was one of the experiments on board Granat. Lifetime: 1 December 1989 - 27 November 1998.

Phebus_Granat
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

PHEBUS (0.1-100 MeV) was one of the experiments on board Granat. Lifetime: 1 December 1989 - 27 November 1998.

Coronas
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

The Russian spacecraft Koronas-F was launched on 31 July 2001. The last burst that contributed to the IPN was detected on 15 December 2002. Lifetime: 31 July 2001 - 6 Dec 2005.

Yohkoh
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

Yohkoh was launched on 31 August 1991. It stopped operating in December 2001.

Watch_Eureca
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

WATCH (6-150 keV) was one of the instruments of the EURECA platform. Lifetime: 31 July 1992 - 1 July 1993.

Mars_Observer_Odyssey
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

Mars Observer (0.5-2.0 MeV) is no longer operating. Lifetime: 25 September 1992 - 21 August 1993.

Mars Odyssey (30 keV-10 MeV) was launched on 7 April 2001 and is still operating.

TGRS_Wind
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

TGRS (15 keV - 10 MeV) is one of the instruments of WIND. WIND was launched on 1 November 1994, and it is still operating, however the TGRS did not produce useful after approximately four years after launch.

Konus_Wind
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

KONUS (10 - 770 keV) is one of the instruments of WIND. WIND was launched on 1 November 1994, and it is still operating.

BeppoSAX
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

Launched on 30 April 1996 and end operations on 30 April 2002.

HETE2
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

Launched on 9 October 2000 and no longer operating.

SROSS_C
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

The Indian spacecraft SROSS-C and SROSS-C2 operated from 25 May 1992 until 14 July 1992 and 2001.

Near
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

NEAR operated from 17 February 1996 to 14 February 2001.

ASM_RXTE
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

The All-Sky Monitor (2-10 keV) is one of the instruments of RXTE, which was launched on 30 December 1995 and decommissioned on January 5, 2012.

Rhessi
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

RHESSI was launched on 5 February 2002 and is still operating.

Integral
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

INTEGRAL was launched on 17 October 2002 and is still operating.

Swift
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: YES, means that the experiment triggered on the event; N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

Swift was launched on 20 November 2004 and is still operating.

Messenger_Bcolombo
This parameter records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. Up to 2015, this field is used to record events from the MESSENGER spacecraft. After October 2018, it records events from BepiColombo. The parameter is coded as follows: N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. This experiment does not have a triggered data mode. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

MESSENGER was launched on 3 August 2004 and stopped operating on 30 April 2015 when it impacted the surface of Mercury. However, the experiment has only been turned on once for a brief period.

BepiColombo was launched on 20 October 2018 and is still operating.

Suzaku
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. This experiment does not have a triggered data mode. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

Suzaku was launched on 10 July 2005 and ended the operation on 26 Aug 2015 after the communication failure that started on 1 June 2015.

Agile
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. This experiment does not have a triggered data mode. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

Agile was launched on 23 April 2007 and is still operating.

Fermi
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. This experiment does not have a triggered data mode. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

Fermi was launched on 11 June 2008 and is still operating.

Other_Missions
This parameter includes the detection of a particular event seen by a group of different missions. Prior to Apr 2021, this parameter records only events observed with XMM. After Apr 2021, it also records events detected by the following missions: CALET, GECAM, Insight, and AstroSat. The parameter is coded as follows: N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

XMM was launched on 10 Dec 1999 and is still operating. CALET CGBM was launched on 19 August 2015 and is still operating. GECAM was launched on 9 December 2020 and is still operating. Insight was launched on 15 June 2017 and is still operating. AstroSat was launched on on 28 September 2015 and is still operating.

Maxi
This parameter and the others named after an experiment or mission name records if that particular event was seen by that experiment or mission name. The parameter is coded as follows: N/O, means event non-observable with this spacecraft, RI, means that a rate increase was observed; NO, means that no trigger or rate increase was detected even if the event was observable by that spacecraft. This experiment does not have a triggered data mode. A blank field means that the data have not been examined.

MAXI was launched on 13 July 2009 and is still operating.

Comment
Comment field. It may include information such as burst numbers for various satellites.

Contact Person

Questions regarding the IPNGRB database table can be addressed to the HEASARC Help Desk.

Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Monday, 16-Sep-2024 17:29:31 EDT