A VLBI delay model for gravitational deformations of the Onsala 20 m radio telescope and the impact on its global coordinates
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2019

Deformations of the reflectors of radio telescopes used in geodetic and astrometric VLBI observations belong to the class of systematic error sources which affect the estimated position of the telescope and which necessitates correction at the observation level. The determination of the gravitationally induced deformations requires some effort and needs specific modeling of the impact on the VLBI delay observables. This has been exercised on the Onsala 20 m radio telescope. In this publication, we present an elevation-dependent model for the contributions of the gravitational deformations to the delay observables for application in VLBI data analysis. New is that thermal expansion in some of the contributing components need to be applied also to the gravitational deformation effects. A further novelty is that we can substantiate the validity of and the need for these corrections. Concerning the validity we show that the empirical model used by astronomical colleagues for deliberately shifting the sub-reflector for gain optimization, exactly (within 0.5 mm RMS) matches the measured gravitationally induced displacement of the sub-reflector plus the change in focal length. The other evidence is the impact on the vertical component of the telescope’s coordinates of − 6.1 mm, which reduces the discrepancy determined in the computations of the ITRF2014 to 1.7 mm.

VLBI Onsala 20 m radio telescope Group delay Gravitational deformation model Thermal expansion model Impact on ITRF

Författare

Axel Nothnagel

Universität Bonn

Christoph Holst

Universität Bonn

Rüdiger Haas

Chalmers, Rymd-, geo- och miljövetenskap, Onsala rymdobservatorium

Journal of Geodesy

0949-7714 (ISSN) 1432-1394 (eISSN)

Vol. 93 10 2019-2036

Drivkrafter

Hållbar utveckling

Ämneskategorier

Infrastrukturteknik

Geofysik

Geokemi

Fundament

Grundläggande vetenskaper

Infrastruktur

Onsala rymdobservatorium

DOI

10.1007/s00190-019-01299-x

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2022-04-05