The fluences of gamma-ray bursts ( GRBs ) are measured with a variety of instruments in different detector energy ranges .
A detailed comparison of the implied energy releases of the GRB sample requires , then , an accurate accounting of this diversity in fluence measurements which properly corrects for the redshifting of GRB spectra .
Here , we develop a methodology to “ k -correct ” the implied prompt energy release of a GRB to a fixed co-moving bandpass .
This allows us to homogenize the prompt energy release of 17 cosmological GRBs ( using published redshifts , fluences , and spectra ) to two common co-moving bandpasses : 20–2000 keV and 0.1 keV–10 MeV ( “ bolometric ” ) .
While the overall distribution of GRB energy releases does not change significantly by using a k -correction , we show that uncorrected energy estimates systematically undercounts the bolometric energy by \sim 5 % to 600 % , depending on the particular GRB .
We find that the median bolometric isotropic-equivalent prompt energy release is 2.19 \times 10 ^ { 53 } erg with an r.m.s .
scatter of 0.80 dex .
The typical estimated uncertainty on a given k -corrected energy measurement is \sim 20 % .