Radio interferometry

Abstract

In the previous Quadrennial Report, Clark [1979c] concluded that, after slightly more than one decade of development and refinement, the technique of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) had “come of age.” However, by the close of 1978, only the most tentative first steps had been taken by the geodetic community toward the deployment and operation of VLBI geodetic surveying systems. There was not a single dedicated geodetic VLBI observatory in the world. Even at major astronomical observatories, geodetic VLBI observing sessions were elaborate productions involving the very scientists and engineers who designed and built the instrumentation operating the data acquisition systems.