The Celestial Reference Frame at X/Ka-band (8.4/32 GHz)

Jacobs, C. S.; Clark, J. E.; Heflin, M. B.; Skjerve, L. J.; Sovers, O. J.; Garcia-Miro, C.; Moll, V. E.; Horiuchi, S.

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NASA NTRS · 20150007025

The Celestial Reference Frame at X/Ka-band (8.4/32 GHz)

Jacobs, C. S.·Clark, J. E.·Heflin, M. B.·Skjerve, L. J.·Sovers, O. J.·Garcia-Miro, C.·Moll, V. E.·Horiuchi, S.

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Abstract

A celestial reference frame at X/Kaband (8.4/32 GHz) has been constructed using fiftyone 24-hour sessions with the Deep Space Network. We report on observations which have detected 436 sources covering the full 24 hours of right ascension and declinations down to -45 deg. Comparison of this X/Ka-band frame to the S/X-band (2.3/8.4 GHz) ICRF2 shows wRMS agreement of 200 micro-arcsec ( mu as) in alpha cos delta and 290 mu as in delta. There is evidence for zonal errors at the 100 mu as level. Known errors include limited SNR, lack of phase calibration, troposphere mismodelling, and limited southern geometry. The motivations for extending the ICRF to frequencies above 8 GHz are to access more compact source morphology for improved frame stability, to provide calibrators for phase referencing, and to support spacecraft navigation at Ka-band.

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Jacobs, C. S., Clark, J. E., Heflin, M. B., Skjerve, L. J., Sovers, O. J., Garcia-Miro, C., Moll, V. E., Horiuchi, S.. 2010-10-04. The Celestial Reference Frame at X/Ka-band (8.4/32 GHz). https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20150007025

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