VLBI astrometry of radio stars to link radio and optical celestial reference frames: observing strategies

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Gaia celestial reference frame (Gaia-CRF) will benefit from a close assessment with independent methods, such as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) measurements of radio stars at bright magnitudes. However, obtaining full astrometric parameters for each radio star through VLBI measurements demands a significant amount of observation time. This study proposes an efficient observing strategy that acquires double-epoch VLBI positions to measure the positions and proper motions of radio stars at a reduced cost. The solution for CRF link compatible with individual VLBI position measurements is introduced, and the optimized observing epoch scheduling is discussed. Applying this solution to observational data yields results sensitive to sample increase or decrease, yet they remain consistently in line with the literature at the 1σ level. This suggests the potential for improvement with a larger sample size. Simulations show that the double-epoch strategy reduces CRF link parameter uncertainties by over 30 per cent compared to the five-parameter strategy.