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Diurnal changes of radio refraction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

Wilhelm J. Altenhoff*
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie Auf dem Hügel 69 5300 Bonn, West Germany

Abstract

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Pathlength variations due to refraction changes in the troposphere may impose a severe limitation to VLB experiments (like random clock drifts). In connection with a VLB experiment Moran and Penfield (1976) analysed surface values of water vapor density, data of several hundred radiosonde launches and of measurements of sky brightness near the water vapor line at λ = 1.3 cm. They found that the surface values allow to estimate the pathlength to an accuracy of 5 cm in summer and 2 cm in winter. Sky brightness data give a prediction accuracy of 1.5 cm for all weather conditions, but for cloudfree conditions the accuracy was 0.3 cm.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1979 

References

Hills, R.E. et al.: 1978, “Absolute Measurements of Atmospheric Emission and Absorption in the Range 100 to 1000 GHz”, paper presented at the Third International Conference on Submillimeter Waves, Guildford, U.K. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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