Baseline vector repeatability at the sub-millimeter level enabled by
radio interferometer phase delays of intra-site baselines
Abstract
We report the results of position ties for short baselines at eight
geodetic sites based on phase delays that are extracted from global
geodetic very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations rather
than dedicated short-baseline experiments. An analysis of phase delay
observables from two antennas at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell,
Germany, extracted from 107 global 24-hour VLBI sessions since 2019
yields weighted root-mean-square scatters about the mean baseline vector
of 0.3, 0.3, and 0.8 mm in the east, north, and up directions,
respectively. Position ties are also obtained for other short baselines
between legacy antennas and nearby, newly built antennas. They are
critical for maintaining a consistent continuation of the realization of
the terrestrial reference frame, especially when including the new VGOS
network. The phase delays of the baseline WETTZ13N–WETTZELL enable an
investigation of sources of error at the sub-millimeter level. We found
that a systematic variation of larger than 1 mm can be introduced to the
up estimates of this baseline vector when atmospheric delays were
estimated. Although the sub-millimeter repeatability has been achieved
for the baseline vector WETTZ13N–WETTZELL, we conclude that long term
monitoring should be conducted for more short baselines to assess the
instrumental effects, in particular the systematic differences between
phase delays and group delays, and to find common solutions for reducing
them. This will be an important step towards the goal of global geodesy
at the 1 mm level.