The status of the AGILE GRB observations and the noticeable case of GRB 080514B

Since Summer 2007, the AGILE mission is successfully detecting and localizing Gamma Ray Bursts by using its wide†field hard X†ray monitor SuperAGILE (17–60 keV) and its CsI Minicalorimeter (0.3–20 MeV). Moreover, all the events with a known localization in the field of view of the Gamma Ray Imaging Detector are searched for in the 30 MeV–50 GeV energy range. Among the several bursts occurred in the field of view of the Gamma Ray Imaging Detector during more than one year of operations, at the time of writing the remarkable GRB 080514B is detected at high significance and GRB 080721 and GRB 081001 are detected at low significance. GRB 080514B is the first Gamma Ray Burst showing a significant emission above 20 MeV after EGRET, and the first ever associated with an afterglow, measured at X†rays and in the IR/Optical/UV. Significant upper limits are derived for the other GRBs. In this paper we report about the status and the scientific performances of the AGILE instrumentation in the study of GRBs and we discuss the properties of GRB 080514B in the context of the long Gamma Ray Bursts.