NASA NTRS2018
We believe that the S/X celestial reference frame(CRF) can be improved in the far-south by a factor of 2 in density and a factor of 2.5 in precision. We have started a collaboration to meet these goals. We have increased the data rates on existing IV Sastrometric sessions in the south from 256 Mbps to 1 Gbps. We will use this sensitivity to detect weaker sources and to improve the precision of sources in the southern S/X CRF, while simultaneously increasing the number of sources, in particular the overlap with other frames such as K-and Ka-band in the radio and the Gaia frame in the optical. VLBI observations in the southern celestial hemisphere have always been more difficult both because there are fewer radio telescopes in the south than in the north, and because there are fewer known reference sources in the south. There have been many efforts in recent years to increase the number of known reference sources in the south, in particular the LBA calibrator Survey (LCS), which has already produced a significant improvement at X-band. The ICRF-3 is expected to make significant improvements in the south, however the south has not yet reached parity with the north and much work remains to be done. Therefore dedicated astrometric and imaging observations have already begun to improve the southern CRF at S/Xbands.