What HETE Sends to the GCN

Information about bursts detected by the HETE spacecraft is propagated in real time to the Mission Operations Center at MIT via the Burst Alert Network ([4], [11]). Upon receipt at MIT, pertinent burst information are reformatted and automatically sent to the GCN for distribution to the observing community; if, after ground analysis, more or better information become available, it is sent to the GCN manually by a HETE Duty Scientist. We review the contents of these messages and the procedures used to distribute them. We also summarize the results of the HETE User’s Group Meeting, which took place at the Woods Hole GRB Conference, in which ideas were exchanged between the observing community and the HETE and GCN teams.