Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:34:16.944Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Radio Reference Frame Stability from VLBI Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2017

O. J. Sovers
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109
R. N. Treuhaft
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Intercontinental radio interferometric measurements between NASA's Deep Space Network stations yield a catalog of positions of 106 extragalactic radio sources, uniformly distributed between −45° and +85° declination. Almost all of the source positions have formal uncertainties between 0.5 and 3 milliarcseconds. Estimates of three independent sets of 32 source coordinates at average epochs 1980.0, 1983.2, and 1984.5 assess the level of stability of the reference frame over a five-year period. Comparisons of the three sets of source coordinates show a number of cases of > 2σ differences, particularly betwen the 1984–85 and 1981–83 periods. No sources, however, show 2σ shifts among both pairs of epochs. Upper limits of the order of 1 mas/yr can be placed on the time rates of change of the 32 source coordinates.

Type
Astrometry
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1988 

References

Lanyi, G. E. (1984). Proceedings of the International Symposium on Space Techniques for Geodynamics, Sopron, Hungary, July 9–13, 1984, vol. 2, p. 184.Google Scholar
Ma, C. (1987). Proceedings of IAU Symposium 128, “The Earth's Rotation and Reference Frames for Geodesy and Geodynamics”, 1986, ed. Babcock, A. K., in preparation.Google Scholar
Melbourne, W., Anderle, R., Feissel, M., King, R., McCarthy, D., Smith, D., Tapley, B., and Vicente, R. (1983). USNO Circular No. 167, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Robertson, D. S., Fallon, F. W., and Carter, W. E. (1986). Astron. J. 91, 1456.Google Scholar