Improved position estimates for the Chinese Deep Space Station Kashi derived by geodetic very long baseline interferometry

Abstract

A dedicated 24 h S/X dual-band geodetic very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) experiment was conducted in January 2015 with the goal of improving the position estimates for the Chinese Deep Space Station Kashi. Previously, the position estimates had been only accurate to ~20 cm, which is insufficient for future Chinese deep space explorations. The experiment design and data reduction are described with special emphasis on the limited frequency ranges of Kashi for bandwidth synthesis. A narrowed multi-band delay search window based on post-fit residuals was utilized to resolve the sub-ambiguities due to the drop of a frequency channel in fringe fit, which saved ~22% of the observations from the affected baseline. Final position estimates of Kashi were obtained from the global solution by using more than 5300 international VLBI sessions from August 1979 to September 2015, and estimates were found to be accurate to about 10, 25, and 20 mm in the X, Y, and Z components. Various statistical tests were run, and the estimates and precisions are believed to be reliable.