International collaboration for improvement of the Celestial Reference Frame in the southern hemisphere  


Authors / CoAuthors

Titov, O. | Lovell, J. | de Witt, A. | Gulyaev, S. | Dawson, J. | Dickey, J.

Abstract

The second realization of the International Celestial Reference Frame (known as ICRF2) reached a floor accuracy of about 40 µas by 2009. The mean accuracy of the 295 'defining' radio source positions in the northern hemisphere is about 100 µas, whereas, for the southern hemisphere it is 3-4 times worse. This deficiency results in relatively poor estimation of geodetic and geodynamic parameters (TRF, EOP) using radiotelescopes located in the southern hemisphere (i.e. Australia, South Africa, New Zealand). To overcome this weakness of the ICRF2, we have commenced a dedicated observational program to observe a set of the ICRF2 'non-defining' and VCS (VLBA Calibrator Survey) radio sources to improve the coverage and accuracy of the celestial reference frame in the southern hemisphere, especially for the declination zone between -90° and -40°. Three new 12-meter AuScope radio telescopes involved in this project are complimented by the 64-meter radio telescope at Parkes (operated by Australian Telescope National Facility (ATNF)), the 12-meter radio telescope in New Zealand (Warkworth) and two radio telescopes in South Africa (HartRAO 15- and 26-meter facilities). There are 30 astrometric sessions planned during 2013-2014 (funded by AuScope).

Product Type

nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

75905

Contact for the resource

  Custodian

MNHD  

  Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)  
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia

Keywords

  • External Publication
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
  • Earth Sciences
  • Published_Internal

Publication Date

2013-01-01T00:00:00

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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

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geoscientificInformation

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