General Coordinates Network

Diagram of the Gamma ray burst Coordinates Network. (NASA/GSFC)

The General Coordinates Network (GCN), formerly known as the Gamma-ray burst Coordinates Network, is an open-source platform created by NASA to receive and transmit alerts about astronomical transient phenomena. This includes neutrino detections by observatories such as IceCube or Super-Kamiokande, gravitational wave events from the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA interferometers, and gamma-ray bursts observed by Fermi, Swift or INTEGRAL.[1] One of the main goals is to allow for follow-up observations of an event by other observatories, in hope to observe multi-messenger events.[2][3]

GCN has its origins in the BATSE coordinates distribution network (BACODINE). The Burst And Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) was a scientific instrument on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO), and BACODINE monitored the BATSE real-time telemetry from CGRO. The first function of BACODINE was calculating the right ascension (RA) and declination (dec) locations for GRBs that it detected, and distributing those locations to sites around the world in real-time. Since the de-orbiting of the CGRO, this function of BACODINE is no longer operational. The second function of BACODINE was collecting right ascension and declination locations of GRBs detected by spacecraft other than CGRO, and then distributing that information. With this functionality, the original BACODINE name was changed to the more general name GCN.[4] It later evolved to include alerts from non-GRB observatories and was sometimes referred to as GCN/TAN (for Transient Astronomy Network).[5]

  1. ^ "GCN - Missions - Missions". gcn.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2023-03-31.
  2. ^ Boër, Michel (2012-01-01). "Rapid Optical Follow-Up Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts". International Journal of Modern Physics: Conference Series. 12: 48–57. Bibcode:2012IJMPS..12...48B. doi:10.1142/S2010194512006253.
  3. ^ French, J.; Hanlon, L.; McBreen, B.; McBreen, S.; Moran, L.; Smith, N.; Giltinan, A.; Meintjes, P.; Hoffman, M. (2004-09-28). "Watcher: A Telescope for Rapid Gamma-Ray Burst Follow-Up Observations". AIP Conference Proceedings. 727 (1): 741–744. Bibcode:2004AIPC..727..741F. doi:10.1063/1.1810948. ISSN 0094-243X.
  4. ^ Barthelmy, Scott D.; Cline, T. L.; Butterworth, P. (2001-10-07). "GRB Coordinates Network (GCN): A status report". AIP Conference Proceedings. 587 (1): 213–217. Bibcode:2001AIPC..587..213B. doi:10.1063/1.1419402. ISSN 0094-243X.
  5. ^ "Brief Description". gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2023-04-01.