The InterPlanetary Network Supplement to the Second Fermi GBM Catalog of Cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts

Abstract

InterPlanetary Network (IPN) data are presented for the gamma-ray bursts in the second Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) catalog. Of the 462 bursts in that catalog between 2010 July 12 and 2012 July 11, 428, or 93%, were observed by at least 1 other instrument in the 9-spacecraft IPN. Of the 428, the localizations of 165 could be improved by triangulation. For these bursts, triangulation gives one or more annuli whose half-widths vary between about 2.′3° and 16°, depending on the peak flux, fluence, time history, arrival direction, and the distance between the spacecraft. We compare the IPN localizations with the GBM 1σ, 2σ, and 3σ error contours and find good agreement between them. The IPN 3σ error boxes have areas between about 8 square arcminutes and 380 square degrees, and are an average of 2500 times smaller than the corresponding GBM 3σ localizations. We identify four bursts in the IPN/GBM sample whose origins were given as “uncertain,” but may in fact be cosmic. This leads to an estimate of over 99% completeness for the GBM catalog.