IVS: Current Status and Future Plans
Abstract
The International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS) is a globally operating service that coordinates and performs Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) activities through its constituent components. The VLBI activities are associated with the creation, provision, dissemination, and archiving of relevant VLBI data and products. The products mostly pertain to the determination of the celestial and terrestrial reference frames, the Earth orientation parameters (EOP), atmospheric parameters as well as other ancillary parameters. The IVS observational network currently consists of about 40 radio telescopes worldwide. Subsets of these telescopes (8-12 stations) participate in 24-hour observing sessions that are run several times per week and in 1-hour intensive sessions for UT1 determination every day. The current VLBI network was developed mainly in the 1970s and 1980s. A number of factors, including aging infrastructure and demanding new scientific requirements, started to challenge its future sustainability and relevance. In response, the IVS and other groups developed and started implementing the next generation VLBI system, called VGOS (VLBI Global Observing System), at existing and new sites. The VGOS network is expected to reach maturity in the early 2020s. We describe the current status, progress, and anticipated prospects of geodetic/astrometric VLBI and the IVS.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.G51C..01B
- Keywords:
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- 1221 Lunar and planetary geodesy and gravity;
- GEODESY AND GRAVITYDE: 1239 Earth rotation variations;
- GEODESY AND GRAVITYDE: 1240 Satellite geodesy: results;
- GEODESY AND GRAVITYDE: 1241 Satellite geodesy: technical issues;
- GEODESY AND GRAVITY