GRB 220218A: Swift detection of a burst

At 22:28:59 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 220218A (trigger=1093860). Swift did not slew to the burst location. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 133.830, +31.984 which is RA(J2000) = 08h 55m 19s Dec(J2000) = +31d 59' 02" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve for this image trigger shows some variation on a multi-minute timescale following the trigger, but further analysis with the downlinked data is required to determine whether it is due to the GRB source. Swift is currently restarting after a reaction wheel failure, so automatic slews to GRBs are turned off. Therefore there will be no XRT or UVOT observations at this time. Burst Advocate for this burst is V. D'Elia (valerio.delia AT ssdc.asi.it). Please contact the BA by email if you require additional information regarding Swift followup of this burst. In extremely urgent cases, after trying the Burst Advocate, you can contact the Swift PI by phone (see Swift TOO web site for information: http://www.swift.psu.edu/)