Scheduling And Simulation Of VLBI Measurements For The Determination Of Earth Orientation Parameters

Abstract

Abstract The article aims to present the results obtain from the scheduling and simulation of VLBI measurements in October 2010 for a period of three days for 24 hour continuous observations. To be sure that we will obtain good VLBI observation we have to do an optimization of the network. This can be done quite accurately by using the new modules that are part of the VLBI processing software’s, the modules scheduling and simulation. This can be considered the first step in preparation of the VLBI experiment. Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) it is a primary space-geodetic technique that it is able to determine precise coordinates on the Earth, by monitoring the variable of Earth orientation parameters (EOP) with high precision. Also Very Long Baseline Interferometry plays an important role for determination of celestial and terrestrial reference frame. It is also a technique that each year is more developed form a software and hardware point of view. To obtain the scans we used a set of eight different VLBI antennas and as a source we used different quasars. In the scheduling we used the source based strategy contrary to the station based approach and the radio sources where from updated catalogues according to the requirements of the VLBI2010 system, which means that we are able to obtain a best coverage of the celestial sphere. The results show that scheduling and simulation are very good tools in preparing real VLBI experiments.