Favorable Locations for new VGOS Antennas in India depending on the assessment of Geodetic Parameters and Environmental Factors

Abstract

Abstract VLBI simulation studies are carried out to investigate the impact of any proposed station or strategy on the geodetic parameters, like Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) and Terrestrial Reference Frame (TRF). Generally, such studies are performed for making decisions on any new development in the existing VLBI network. Thus, for selecting the favorable locations for establishment of a VLBI antenna in India, simulation studies are performed on 42 potential locations to cover the whole Indian subcontinent. Furthermore, the simulation setup is divided into four scenarios that consider the current and future situations of the global VLBI network. Extensive simulation strategy is applied with optimized scheduling for each network geometry, Monte-Carlo simulations and analysis in the VieSched + + software. Just the results from the simulation are considered not enough for a comprehensive assessment of the realistic performance of locations, and hence, environmental factors are also investigated in the present study. The environmental factors affecting the operation and vulnerability of the VLBI technique at the potential locations are also incorporated in the present study. For this, a weighted scoring model is developed with the scores and weights based on the probable impact and occurrence frequency of disrupting environmental events, respectively. This approach will avoid the possibility of new VLBI station ending up in an unfavorable location in India and, underperforming substantially in terms of the expected improvement of geodetic parameters as determined from the simulation study. The VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS) network is being established at a global level to create a uniformly distributed network of the next generation VLBI system in order to meet the goals of the Global Geodetic Observing Systems (GGOS). India is planning to establish its first VGOS antenna and therefore, this study will help to mark the high-performance favorable locations for VGOS. The results show that the VGOS antenna at favorable locations in India outperform other locations by a factor of 1.1 to 5.0 in improvement percentage of derived geodetic parameters.