The first year of Antarctic VLBI observations

• Main Authors: Takaaki Jike, Yoshihiro Fukuzaki, Kazuo Shibuya, Koichiro Doi, Seiji Manabe, David L. Jauncey, George D. Nicolson, Peter M. McCulloch
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: National Astronomical Observatory/Geographical Survey Institute/National Institute of Polar Research/National Institute of Polar Research/National Astronomical Observatory/Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Epping NSW/Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory/Physics Department, University of Tasmania 2005
• Subjects: VLBI; the Mitaka FX Correlator; the Syowa VLBI reference point; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Syowa Station; Antarc*; Antarctica; Polar geoscience
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=3147; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00003147/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=3147&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

We are undertaking a series of geodetic VLBI observations between the Syowa Station 11-m antenna in Antarctica, and the 26-m antennas in Hobart Tasmania and Hartebeesthoek South Africa. These observations are the beginning of our campaign to monitor the motion and stability of the Antarctic plate. We describe here the results of the first year's observations made during the southern summer and winter of 1998. Two mutually incompatible recording systems, K4 and S2, are used. The Mitaka FX Correlator was used to correlate these data. By using software called CALC3/MSOLV, the mean position of the antenna's geodetic reference point was found to be X=1766194.152±0.006m, Y=1460410.923±0.005m and Z=- 5932273.329±0.015m at the epoch of 1998.9 in the International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2000 (ITRF2000) system. From a comparison with measurements made with other space geodetic techniques we estimate that our results have typical uncertainties of no more than 2 to 3cm in each coordinate.