Vienna Very Long Baseline Interferometry Software Research Articles

Mitigating the effect of source structure in geodetic VLBI by re-weighting observations using closure delays and baseline-to-jet orientation

An ideal target for geodetic very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) is a strong and point-like radio source. In reality, most celestial sources used in geodetic VLBI have spatial structure. This is as a major source of error in VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS) and also affects legacy S/X observations. Source structure causes a systematic delay, which can affect the geodetic estimates if not modelled or otherwise accounted for. In this work, we aim to mitigate its impact by extending the stochastic model used in the least-squares fitting of the VLBI group delays. We have developed a weighting scheme to re-weight the observations by parameterizing the source structure component in terms of closure delays and jet orientation relative to the observing baseline. It was implemented in the Vienna VLBI Software. To assess the performance of the extended stochastic model, we analysed the CONT17 legacy sessions and generated suitable reference solutions for comparison. The effects of re-weighting were evaluated with respect to the session fit statistics, source-wise residuals, and geodetic parameters. We find that this relatively simple noise model consistently improves the session fit by about 5% with moderate variation from session to session. The geodetic estimates are not affected to a significant level by this new weighting method. Source-wise we see improved post-fit residuals for 63 out of a total of 91 sources observed.

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

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.

A strategic independent VLBI network for Europe to accurately determine Earth Orientation Parameters needed for precision positioning and navigation on Earth and in space

Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) are required to link the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF) to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). The ITRF is required for modern mapping (cadastral surveying, topographical, geological and hydrographical) and is used in all activities where precise positioning in a modern reference frame is required; this includes precise satellite orbit determination and high accuracy navigational requirements. These EOP cannot be modelled to high accuracy, due to the complicated and stochastic nature of global mass transport on Earth, and therefore must be measured using the space geodetic technique of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). In a strategic sense, the USA, China, the Russian Federation and the European Union (EU) have recognised the need to develop independent Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) constellations, resulting in the GPS, Beidou, Glonass and Galileo constellations, respectively. Of these, only the EU does not have the landmass to enable VLBI networks with sufficiently long North-South and East-West baselines to allow EOP measurements with high accuracy. Here we report on our results to create a strategic EOP network for the EU, based on VLBI stations in Europe (Wettzell) and South Africa (HartRAO), and German owned stations in South America (Chile) and Antarctica (O’Higgins). The Vienna VLBI Software (VieVS) is used to analyse the strategic network. We find that these long baselines will provide independent EOP of sufficiently high accuracy. It is essential that the German VLBI station in South America, which has now moved from Chile to Argentina, be equipped with a modern VLBI antenna meeting Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) standards; this will ensure also providing the EU with capacity to maintain satellite orbits and be non-reliant on other superpowers for advanced navigational requirements.

On the estimation of a celestial reference frame in the presence of source structure

Thespatialstructureofsourcesmakingupthecelestialreferenceframe(CRF)atradiofrequencies is a systematic error source in very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) measurements. Using simulations, we investigate the effects of source structure on the CRF, determined by the actual observational programme of the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry. This is done using the source structure simulator of the Vienna VLBI Software. Applying various mock two-component source models, systematic displacements of 10–80 μas in median source position offsets are found. These offsets are predominantly aligned with the direction of the jet. The simulations further show that slight changes in the source model can significantly change the estimated positions. We finally present a new parametrization of sourcepositionsintheanalysis,namelyalongthejetdirectionandperpendiculartoit,allowing us to significantly mitigate the effects of source structure on an estimated CRF.

Simulating the effects of quasar structure on parameters from geodetic VLBI

We investigate the effects of quasar structure on geodetic very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) measurements. We create catalogues of simulated and real quasars with a range of structure indices, and use these to generate synthetic CONT11 observations with the Vienna VLBI Software simulator tool. We systematically investigate the effects of quasars with different amounts of source structure, and find that source structure can affect station positions at the one-millimetre level. This effect is stronger for isolated stations. Overall, source structure is found to contribute to about 10 % of the troposphere and clock effects. Our simulations confirm analytical predictions that source structure mitigation strategies must be developed in order to achieve millimetre-level VLBI position accuracy.

Comparison of Site Velocities Derived from Collocated GPS, VLBI and SLR Techniques at The Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (Comparison of Site Velocities)

Abstract Space geodetic techniques provide highly accurate methods for estimating bedrock stability at subcentimetre level. We utilize data derived from Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) techniques, collocated at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory, to characterise local plate motion and compare the solutions from the three techniques. Data from the GNSS station were processed using the GAMIT/GLOBK (version 10.4) software, data from the SLR station (MOBLAS-6)were processed using the Satellite Laser Ranging Data Analysis Software (SDAS) and the VLBI data sets were processed using the Vienna VLBI Software (VieVS) software. Results show that there is a good agreement between horizontal and vertical velocity components with a maximum deviation of 1.7 mm/yr, 0.7 mm/yr and 1.3 mm/yr between the North, East and Up velocity components respectively for the different techniques. At HartRAO there is no significant trend in the vertical component and all the techniques used are consistent with the a-priori velocities when compared with each other. This information is crucial in monitoring the local motion variations since geodetic instruments require a very stable base to minimise measurement errors. These findings demonstrate that station coordinate time-series derived with different techniques and analysis strategies provide comparable results.

New VLBI2010 scheduling strategies and implications on the terrestrial reference frames.

In connection with the work for the next generation VLBI2010 Global Observing System (VGOS) of the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry, a new scheduling package (Vie_Sched) has been developed at the Vienna University of Technology as a part of the Vienna VLBI Software. In addition to the classical station-based approach it is equipped with a new scheduling strategy based on the radio sources to be observed. We introduce different configurations of source-based scheduling options and investigate the implications on present and future VLBI2010 geodetic schedules. By comparison to existing VLBI schedules of the continuous campaign CONT11, we find that the source-based approach with two sources has a performance similar to the station-based approach in terms of number of observations, sky coverage, and geodetic parameters. For an artificial 16 station VLBI2010 network, the source-based approach with four sources provides an improved distribution of source observations on the celestial sphere. Monte Carlo simulations yield slightly better repeatabilities of station coordinates with the source-based approach with two sources or four sources than the classical strategy. The new VLBI scheduling software with its alternative scheduling strategy offers a promising option with respect to applications of the VGOS.

Investigation of crustal motion in Europe by analysing the European VLBI sessions

Since 1990 the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS) has been performing geodetic Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations within the European geodetic VLBI network. In this work, 114 European VLBI sessions from January 1990 to September 2011 are analysed using the Vienna VLBI Software (VieVS). A total of 58 baselines with lengths ranging from 59 m to 4581 km are investigated and the lengths of most of them indicate repeatabilities at the sub-centimetre level. The horizontal station motions which describe the motion of the Eurasian plate are compared to the NUVEL-1A and MORVEL tectonic plate models. Intraplate crustal motions are investigated by estimating the station velocities with respect to Wettzell (Germany), a station on the geodynamically stable part of Eurasia. The northern part of Europe is dominated by the postglacial isostatic rebound, confirmed by four VLBI sites in this region with an uplift from 2.89±0.71 mm/yr (Svetloe, Russia) to 7.23±1.00 mm/yr (Ny-Alesund, Norway) with respect to the central part of the European plate. Besides the vertical uplift, these radio telescopes evidence a horizontal motion from the centre of the former ice sheet towards its border. In the southern part of Europe the motion of the VLBI sites is caused by the collision of the African plate with the Eurasian plate, while the stations on the stable part of Europe do not present any significant relative motions. Our results are compared against those by Haas et al. (J. Geodyn. 35:391–414, 2003) and with velocities of the current reference frame of the International Global Navigation Satellite Systems Service.

Complex demodulation in VLBI estimation of high frequency Earth rotation components

The spectrum of high frequency Earth rotation variations contains strong harmonic signal components mainly excited by ocean tides along with much weaker non-harmonic fluctuations driven by irregular processes like the diurnal thermal tides in the atmosphere and oceans. In order to properly investigate non-harmonic phenomena a representation in time domain is inevitable. We present a method, operating in time domain, which is easily applicable within Earth rotation estimation from Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). It enables the determination of diurnal and subdiurnal variations, and is still effective with merely diurnal parameter sampling. The features of complex demodulation are used in an extended parameterization of polar motion and universal time which was implemented into a dedicated version of the Vienna VLBI Software VieVS. The functionality of the approach was evaluated by comparing amplitudes and phases of harmonic variations at tidal periods (diurnal/semidiurnal), derived from demodulated Earth rotation parameters (ERP), estimated from hourly resolved VLBI ERP time series and taken from a recently published VLBI ERP model to the terms of the conventional model for ocean tidal effects in Earth rotation recommended by the International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service (IERS). The three sets of tidal terms derived from VLBI observations extensively agree among each other within the three-sigma level of the demodulation approach, which is below 6μas for polar motion and universal time. They also coincide in terms of differences to the IERS model, where significant deviations primarily for several major tidal terms are apparent. An additional spectral analysis of the as well estimated demodulated ERP series of the ter- and quarterdiurnal frequency bands did not reveal any significant signal structure. The complex demodulation applied in VLBI parameter estimation could be demonstrated a suitable procedure for the reliable reproduction of high frequency Earth rotation components and thus represents a qualified tool for future studies of irregular geophysical signals in ERP measured by space geodetic techniques.

Multi-technique comparison of troposphere zenith delays and gradients during CONT08

CONT08 was a 15 days campaign of continuous Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) sessions during the second half of August 2008 carried out by the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS). In this study, VLBI estimates of troposphere zenith total delays (ZTD) and gradients during CONT08 were compared with those derived from observations with the Global Positioning System (GPS), Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), and water vapor radiometers (WVR) co-located with the VLBI radio telescopes. Similar geophysical models were used for the analysis of the space geodetic data, whereas the parameterization for the least-squares adjustment of the space geodetic techniques was optimized for each technique. In addition to space geodetic techniques and WVR, ZTD and gradients from numerical weather models (NWM) were used from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) (all sites), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and Cloud Resolving Storm Simulator (CReSS) (Tsukuba), and the High Resolution Limited Area Model (HIRLAM) (European sites). Biases, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients were computed between the troposphere estimates of the various techniques for all eleven CONT08 co-located sites. ZTD from space geodetic techniques generally agree at the sub-centimetre level during CONT08, and—as expected—the best agreement is found for intra-technique comparisons: between the Vienna VLBI Software and the combined IVS solutions as well as between the Center for Orbit Determination (CODE) solution and an IGS PPP time series; both intra-technique comparisons are with standard deviations of about 3–6 mm. The best inter space geodetic technique agreement of ZTD during CONT08 is found between the combined IVS and the IGS solutions with a mean standard deviation of about 6 mm over all sites, whereas the agreement with numerical weather models is between 6 and 20 mm. The standard deviations are generally larger at low latitude sites because of higher humidity, and the latter is also the reason why the standard deviations are larger at northern hemisphere stations during CONT08 in comparison to CONT02 which was observed in October 2002. The assessment of the troposphere gradients from the different techniques is not as clear because of different time intervals, different estimation properties, or different observables. However, the best inter-technique agreement is found between the IVS combined gradients and the GPS solutions with standard deviations between 0.2 and 0.7 mm.