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DSN Co-Observing Operations to Support Space VLBI Missions

Reliable radio astronomy support of Space Very-Long-Baseline- Interferometry missions by ground radio telescopes is mandatory in order to achieve high scientific return from missions, The 70m DSN antennas along with other ground radio telescopes will perform as the ground segment of the Earth-space interferometer. Improvements of radio astronomy VLBI operations at the DSN to achieve higher reliability, efficiency, flexibility, and lower operations costs is a major goal in preparing for radio astronomy support of SVLBI. To help realize this goal, a remote control and monitoring mode for radio astronomy operations at the DSN is being developed.

radio↗

Short turn-around intercontinental clock synchronization using very-long-baseline interferometry

During the past year work was accomplished to bring into regular operation a VLBI system for making intercontinental clock comparisons with a turn around of a few days from the time of data taking. Earlier VLBI systems required several weeks to produce results. The present system, which is not yet complete, incorporates a number of refinements not available in earlier systems, such as dual frequency inosopheric delay cancellation and wider synthesized bandwidths with instrumental phase calibration.

Madrid, G. A.↗

Mission operations system for Russian space Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry mission

A mission operations system developed to meet the unique requirements of the prospective Russian space VLBI mission Radioastron is described. The challenges associated with the Radioastron operations are mainly due to the interrelationship between the space-based telescope and the ground observatories, and the mission's international character. The Radioastron project includes radio observatories located in 17 different countries, tracking facilities in possibly seven different countries, orbit determination centers in Russia and USA, and widely located data processing facilities. In addition, unique scheduling constraints arise from the competing demands placed on the ground observatory time by earth-based VLBI experiments, and the tracking station time by a Japanese space interferometry mission VSOP, which is expected to be in orbit concurrently with Radioastron. A diagram illustrating the organizational structure of the Radioastron project during operations is presented.

Altunin, V. I.↗

Geodesy by radio interferometry - Intercontinental distance determinations with subdecimeter precision

Analysis of very-long-baseline interferometer (VLBI) observations yielded estimates of the distances between three radio telescopes in the United States and one in Sweden, with formal standard errors of a few centimeters: Westford, Massachusetts-Onsala, Sweden: 5,599,714.66 + or - 0.03 m; Green Bank, West Virginia-Onsala, Sweden: 6,319,317.75 + or - 0.03 m; and Owens Valley, California-Onsala, Sweden: 7,914,131.19 + or - 0.04 m, where the earth-fixed reference points are defined in each case with respect to the axes of the telescopes. The actual standard errors are difficult to estimate reliably but are probably not greater than twice the formal errors.

Herring, T. A.↗

Orbit determination of geosynchronous satellites by VLBI and differential VLBI

Four approaches to radio interferometric tracking of geosynchronous satellites are analyzed and compared. Quasar-based differential very-long-baseline interferometry, which requires a very sensitive receiver, can achieve meter-level position accuracy with a two-baseline system. Satellite-based differential VLBI gives somewhat lower accuracy with a compact, inexpensive receiver. Nondifferential VLBI, using less precise media and clock calibrations obtained by observing the GPS satellites, still gives 5-10 m position accuracy with two baselines. For a sufficiently inclined orbit, all interferometric approaches can yield six-component satellite state from a single baseline.

Yunck, T. P.↗

Very-long-baseline radio interferometry - The Mark III system for geodesy, astrometry, and aperture synthesis

Up to 112 megabit/sec from each radio telescope of an interferometric array can be recorded and processed by the Mark III VLBI system. Sample results are given for baseline lengths between three antennas in the U.S. and three in Europe, as well as for the arc lengths between the positions of six extragalactic radio sources. No significant change is detected in any of these quantities. Signals of a given polarization or of pairs of orthogonal polarizations may be recorded in up to 28 contiguous bands, each nearly 2 MHz wide, for mapping the brightness distribution of compact radio sources. The demonstrated ability to record large bandwidths, and to link many large radio telescopes, allows compact sources with flux densities below 1 millijansky to be detected and studied.

Rogers, A. E. E.↗

Studies of regional and global tectonics and the rotation of the earth using very-long-baseline interferometry

Work is continuing on the study of atmospheric gradients. We include a preprint entitled 'The effect of turbulence on atmospheric gradient parameters determined from ground-based radiometric and space geodetic measurements'. Work has begun on a study of solid Earth tidal deformations using the VLBI data set. We have examined deformations at the semi-diurnal tidal period using the IRIS data set.

Shapiro, Irwin I.↗

Synchronization of clocks by very-long-baseline interferometry

Two hydrogen-maser clocks, one at Haystack Observatory and one at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, were synchronized by means of observations of several extragalactic radio sources on March 28, and again on September 23, 1977. Observations were made sequentially in eight 360-kHz bands distributed between about 8.4 and 8.5 GHz with spacings designed to enable the group-delay difference between the signals received at the two observatories from a given source to be estimated unambiguously, within an uncertainty of less than 1 ns set by receiver noise. The epoch and the rate differences between the observatories' clocks for each experiment were estimated by analysis of observations that spanned several hours. The application of corrections for the contributions to the delays of the antennas, feeds, receiver systems, and recorders yielded absolute determinations of the clock epoch differences. During each experiment, portable cesium clocks were flown from the U.S. Naval Observatory to the observatories and back. The traveling-clock data, analyzed in each case after the VLBI synchronization had been completed, confirmed the VLBI results to within 18 and 14 ns for the first and second experiments, respectively.

Clark, T. A.↗

Innovations in Delta Differential One-Way Range: from Viking to Mars Science Laboratory

The Deep Space Network has provided the capability for very-long-baseline interferometry measurements in support of spacecraft navigation since the late 1970s. Both system implementation and the importance of such measurements to flight projects have evolved significantly over the past three decades. Innovations introduced through research and development programs have led to much better performance. This paper provides an overview of the development and use of interferometric tracking techniques in the DSN starting with the Viking era and continuing with a description of the current system and its planned use to support Mars Science Laboratory.

VLBI Spacecraft Navigation↗