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Fermi-Swift GRB Data Analysis Workshop

November 8-12, 2010
Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD

Welcome | Agenda | Directions | Downloads | Links | Contacts

This week long workshop will introduce participants to GRB data analysis from NASA's premiere GRB missions by experts from each of the Swift and Fermi instrument teams. The participants will receive training on each of the Swift-BAT, XRT, and UVOT, as well as the Fermi-LAT and GBM instruments with lectures and hands-on practice sessions.

The workshop is aimed at graduate students and postdocs who are interested in incorporating Swift and Fermi data into their own research. The practice data sets and topics will be focused on GRB analysis, but are also applicable to other types of objects and observations. There will be spots for 30 participants. In case of oversubscription, they will be filled based upon a short application process, with preference given to participants at an early stage career. After the deadline, the applications will be evaluated promptly by the organizers, and the participants will be informed by Sept 6.

Prerequisites for participation are: 1) a laptop computer with a valid installation of the Fermi Science Tools and the HEADAS/Swift software package or a capability to connect via internet to a computer at your home institution with a validated installation (please refer to the NASA's HEASARC and FSSC web sites for information on supported platforms and installation instructions); 2) test data sets, which are available on the workshop web site, already downloaded onto the computer on which your analysis will be performed. In addition, it desirable that you have read our basic introductory documentation prior to the workshop, and ideally, you've already tried a few analysis examples beforehand.

The workshop itself will be free to all participants, and include coffee breaks.

Topics covered will include:

Introduction to each of the instruments (LAT, GBM, BAT, XRT, UVOT)
Instrument specific software - SDC Swift tools, FSSC Fermi tools, Ftools, RMFIT
Prompt emission

  • light curves
  • spectral analysis
  • joint instrumental spectral fits
Afterglows
  • light curves
  • spectral analysis
  • elements of broadband fitting

The Gamma Ray Bursts 2010 Conference is being held in Annapolis, MD the week prior to the workshop (Nov 1-4), which may be of interest to workshop participants. Please see the conference webpage for details.

Contacts: grb2010loc@bigbang.gsfc.nasa.gov