scholarly journals Optimal VGOS telescope location for the estimation of Earth orientation parameters

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Schartner ◽  
Johannes Böhm ◽  
Axel Nothnagel
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Earth Orientation Parameters ◽  
Error Sources ◽  
Station Network ◽  
Earth Orientation ◽  
Orientation Parameters ◽  
Simple Network

<p>In this investigation, we identify optimal locations for VGOS radio telescopes to estimate Earth orientation parameters (EOP) with a new method based on bulk schedule generation and large-scale Monte-Carlo simulations. Thereby, we focus on a high number of simulations and a proper consideration of scheduling to minimize these undesired error sources.</p><p>The location of the telescope is varied over 477 possible locations, homogeneously distributed over land areas on the globe. The antenna is added to a fixed network of 6, 12 and 18 existing and upcoming VGOS stations. The optimal location is defined through the minimal resulting repeatabilities of the simulated EOP. In this study, a special focus was laid on the generation of high-quality observing plans to minimize the effects of scheduling combined with a high number of simulations to minimize their randomness. To remove the unintended effects caused by scheduling over 93 thousand schedules were iteratively generated. Each schedule is further simulated 1000 times leading to over 5 trillion simulated and analyzed observations. Besides showing our results for the best telescope location, we will highlight how scheduling and the number of simulations affects the repeatability of the estimated EOP. This will help further simulation studies to improve their results.</p><p>The optimal telescope location depends on the EOP of interest and the existing network. For simple network geometries, such as the 6 station network which consists of antennas in Europe and North America, the importance of east-west baselines can be seen for the determination of dUT1 while the importance of north-south baselines can be seen for the determination of polar motion and nutation. For more complex network geometries and an increasing number of VGOS stations, the lack of southern stations becomes more prominent. For the 12 and 18 station network, the location of an additional antenna in south America can significantly improve the accuracy of the EOP by up to 60%.</p>

Determination of the extragalactic-planetary frame tie from Earth orientation parameters

1997 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-318
Author(s):  
Jinsong Ping ◽  
Jinling Li ◽  
Wenjing Jin ◽  
Zhihan Qian
Keyword(s):  
Earth Orientation Parameters ◽  
Earth Orientation ◽  
Orientation Parameters

scholarly journals Earth Orientation - The Current and Future Situation

1995 ◽  
Vol 166 ◽  
pp. 287-291
Author(s):  
Dennis D. McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
International Earth Rotation Service ◽  
Earth Orientation Parameters ◽  
Earth Orientation ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Future Situation ◽  
Orientation Parameters

Sub-milliarcsecond astrometry often requires an accurate characterization of the orientation of the Earth in a quasi-inertial reference frame. The International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) standards provide the current state of the art in the transformation between celestial and terrestrial reference systems. Improvements in the determination of Earth orientation parameters which describe this transformation continue to be made. Current and future capabilities are given.

scholarly journals Determination of the Long Period Nutation Terms from Optical Astrometry and VLBI Data

2000 ◽  
Vol 178 ◽  
pp. 607-612
Author(s):  
P. Yaya ◽  
C. Bizouard ◽  
C. Ron
Keyword(s):  
Linear Trend ◽  
Earth Orientation Parameters ◽  
Earth Orientation ◽  
Long Period ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Vlbi Data ◽  
Orientation Parameters

AbstractA 100-year long optical astrometric series of the Earth Orientation Parameters produced by a Czech team (Vondrák et al., 1998) has been analysed in order to determine components of nutation. Our interest is mostly focused on the long periodic terms: 18.6-year term, 9.3-year term and linear trend, still correlated in VLBI series which cover only the last 20 years. A comparison has been made with the corresponding values determined from the VLBI series.

scholarly journals Scheduling And Simulation Of VLBI Measurements For The Determination Of Earth Orientation Parameters

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Nistor ◽  
A. S. Buda
Keyword(s):  
Very Long Baseline Interferometry ◽  
Terrestrial Reference Frame ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Earth Orientation Parameters ◽  
Earth Orientation ◽  
Long Baseline ◽  
Celestial Sphere ◽  
Orientation Parameters ◽  
Primary Space

Abstract The article aims to present the results obtain from the scheduling and simulation of VLBI measurements in October 2010 for a period of three days for 24 hour continuous observations. To be sure that we will obtain good VLBI observation we have to do an optimization of the network. This can be done quite accurately by using the new modules that are part of the VLBI processing software’s, the modules scheduling and simulation. This can be considered the first step in preparation of the VLBI experiment. Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) it is a primary space-geodetic technique that it is able to determine precise coordinates on the Earth, by monitoring the variable of Earth orientation parameters (EOP) with high precision. Also Very Long Baseline Interferometry plays an important role for determination of celestial and terrestrial reference frame. It is also a technique that each year is more developed form a software and hardware point of view. To obtain the scans we used a set of eight different VLBI antennas and as a source we used different quasars. In the scheduling we used the source based strategy contrary to the station based approach and the radio sources where from updated catalogues according to the requirements of the VLBI2010 system, which means that we are able to obtain a best coverage of the celestial sphere. The results show that scheduling and simulation are very good tools in preparing real VLBI experiments.

scholarly journals Testing impact of the strategy of VLBI data analysis on the estimation of Earth Orientation Parameters and station coordinates

2016 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Wielgosz ◽  
Monika Tercjak ◽  
Aleksander Brzeziński
Keyword(s):  
Reference Frame ◽  
Terrestrial Reference Frame ◽  
Earth Orientation Parameters ◽  
Earth Orientation ◽  
Long Baseline ◽  
Station Coordinates ◽  
Vlbi Data ◽  
Weighting Strategy ◽  
Orientation Parameters

Abstract Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is the only space geodetic technique capable to realise the Celestial Reference Frame and tie it with the Terrestrial Reference Frame. It is also the only technique, which measures all the Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) on a regular basis, thus the role of VLBI in determination of the universal time, nutation and polar motion and station coordinates is invaluable. Although geodetic VLBI has been providing observations for more than 30 years, there are no clear guidelines how to deal with the stations or baselines having significantly bigger post-fit residuals than the other ones. In our work we compare the common weighting strategy, using squared formal errors, with strategies involving exclusion or down-weighting of stations or baselines. For that purpose we apply the Vienna VLBI Software VieVS with necessary additional procedures. In our analysis we focus on statistical indicators that might be the criterion of excluding or down-weighting the inferior stations or baselines, as well as on the influence of adopted strategy on the EOP and station coordinates estimation. Our analysis shows that in about 99% of 24-hour VLBI sessions there is no need to exclude any data as the down-weighting procedure is sufficiently efficient. Although results presented here do not clearly indicate the best algorithm, they show strengths and weaknesses of the applied methods and point some limitations of automatic analysis of VLBI data. Moreover, it is also shown that the influence of the adopted weighting strategy is not always clearly reflected in the results of analysis.

Effect of non-tidal station loading on Lunar Laser Ranging observatories and on the estimation of Earth orientation parameters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishwa Vijay Singh ◽  
Liliane Biskupek ◽  
Jürgen Müller ◽  
Mingyue Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Research Centre ◽  
Laser Ranging ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Lunar Laser Ranging ◽  
Earth Orientation Parameters ◽  
Tidal Station ◽  
Earth Orientation ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Lunar Laser ◽  
Orientation Parameters

<p>The distance between the observatories on Earth and the retro-reflectors on the Moon has been regularly observed by the Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) experiment since 1970. In the recent years, observations with bigger telescopes (APOLLO) and at infra-red wavelength (OCA) are carried out, resulting in a better distribution of precise LLR data over the lunar orbit and the observed retro-reflectors on the Moon, and a higher number of LLR observations in total. Providing the longest time series of any space geodetic technique for studying the Earth-Moon dynamics, LLR can also support the estimation of Earth orientation parameters (EOP), like UT1. The increased number of highly accurate LLR observations enables a more accurate estimation of the EOP. In this study, we add the effect of non-tidal station loading (NTSL) in the analysis of the LLR data, and determine post-fit residuals and EOP. The non-tidal loading datasets provided by the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), the International Mass Loading Service (IMLS), and the EOST loading service of University of Strasbourg in France are included as corrections to the coordinates of the LLR observatories, in addition to the standard corrections suggested by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) 2010 conventions. The Earth surface deforms up to the centimetre level due to the effect of NTSL. By considering this effect in the Institute of Geodesy (IfE) LLR model (called ‘LUNAR’), we obtain a change in the uncertainties of the estimated station coordinates resulting in an up to 1% improvement, an improvement in the post-fit LLR residuals of up to 9%, and a decrease in the power of the annual signal in the LLR post-fit residuals of up to 57%. In a second part of the study, we investigate whether the modelling of NTSL leads to an improvement in the determination of EOP from LLR data. Recent results will be presented.</p>

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