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At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Fundamental physics opportunities with future ground-based mm/sub-mm VLBI arrays

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration recently published the first images of the supermassive black holes in the cores of the Messier 87 and Milky Way galaxies. These observations have provided a new means to study supermassive black holes and probe physical processes occurring in the strong-field regime. We review the prospects of future observations and theoretical studies of supermassive black hole systems. Current ground-based very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) arrays like the EHT and proposed future extensions like the next-generation Event Horizon Telescope will greatly enhance the capabilities of black-hole imaging interferometry. These enhancements will open up several previously inaccessible avenues of investigation, thereby providing important new insights into the properties of supermassive black holes and their environments. This review describes the current state of knowledge for five key science cases, summarising the unique challenges and opportunities for fundamental physics investigations that future mm/sub-mm VLBI developments will enable.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS1996

Space VLBI Co-Observing Developments in the DSN

The JPL/NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) plans to participate in the upcoming Space VLBI missions by using its 70m antenna time to co-observe with space-based radio telescopes. To enhance this support, the DSN is upgrading its radio astronomy equipment at L- and K-band, its VLBI recorders, and its computers and software for co-observing operations.

telescopes radio astronomy Jet Propulsion Laborato↗
NASA NTRS1995

Direct Comparison of GPS and VLBI Velocity Estimates

Considerable effort has been made to collocate permanent GPS and VLBI sites for comparison. The global GPS solution is derived from daily measurements spanning four years while the VLBI solution is based on monthly measurements spanning more than 10 years. Current WRMS agreement of velocities is 3-5 mm/yr for horizontal rates and 6-10 mm/yr for vertical rates. Comparison of velocities is limited by the time span of GPS data. Positions agree at the level of 1-2 cm and their comparison is limited by the quality of the site ties. Best and worst agreement will be discussed along with possible sources of systematic error.

GPS VLBI↗
NASA NTRS1994

22 GHz VLBI Survey: Status Report and Preliminary Results

A ground-based VLBI survey to measure the visibilities and correlated flux densities in continuum at 22 GHz of more than 140 extragalactic radio sources has been conducted with baselines up to approximately 11 000 km. The project has been designed to help in preparation of target lists for VSOP and Radioastron Space VLBI missions as well as providing observational data for statistical study of structural properties at 22 GHz on sub-milliarcsecond scales for this large sample of extragalactic sources.

VLBI extragalactic radio sources survey↗
NASA NTRS2013

International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry 2012 Annual Report

This volume of reports is the 2012 Annual Report of the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS). The individual reports were contributed by VLBI groups in the international geodetic and astrometric community who constitute the permanent components of IVS. The IVS 2012 Annual Report documents the work of the IVS components for the calendar year 2012, our fourteenth year of existence. The reports describe changes, activities, and progress ofthe IVS. Many thanks to all IVS components who contributed to this Annual Report. With the exception of the first section and parts of the last section (described below), the contents of this Annual Report also appear on the IVS Web site athttp:ivscc.gsfc.nasa.gov/publications/ar2012

VLBI↗
NASA NTRS2014

International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry 2013 Annual Report

This volume of reports is the 2013 Annual Report of the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS). The individual reports were contributed by VLBI groups in the international geodetic and astrometric community who constitute the permanent components of IVS. The IVS 2013 Annual Report documents the work of the IVS components for the calendar year 2013, our fifteenth year of existence. The reports describe changes, activities, and progress of the IVS. Many thanks to all IVS components who contributed to this Annual Report. With the exception of the first section and the last section, the contents of this Annual Report also appear on the IVS Web site at http://ivscc.gsfc.nasa.gov/publications/ar2013.

VLBI↗
NASA NTRS1998

Navigation of the Space VLBI Mission - HALCA

This paper describes the spacecraft dynamics model and orbit determination strategies developed to meet the stringent trajectory accuracy requirements for generating predicts for the transfer of a stable uplink frequency to the spacecraft and for determining reconstructed orbits for delivery to the NRAO VLBI correlator and the international VLBI science community.

navigation↗
NASA NTRS1993

Vertical Ocean Loading Amplitudes From VLBI Measurements

Vertical ocean loading amplitudes are determined by analysis of IRIS geodetic VLBI data. Vertical ocean loading amplitudes can thus be inferred from VLBI data at a level which improves the overall model, but detailed assessment of individual tidal components is presently obscured by inadequacies in modeling other tidal effects.

ocean↗
NASA NTRS1996

Multiband VLBI Observations of CTA102

The source CTA102, known to exhibit low frequency variability, has been observed at six epochs (three at labmda32cm, two at lambda18cm, and one at lambda1.3cm) with intercontinental VLBI arrays. On the basis of the changes observed in the structure, we believe that the VLBI arrays at these wavelengths are due to intrinsic processes, and not due to interstellar scintillation. This source exhibits behaviour suggestive of being expanding with a very high apparent transverse velocity.

galaxies↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

On the Alleviation of the Impact of Spaceborne RFI on Geodetic VLBI Results

Radio astronomy observations are under a growing threat from the rapidly growing number of communication satellites. Especially those in low earth orbit. These satellite not only emit at frequencies crucial to radio astronomny, including VLBI, but they also do it at a much stronger signal than the astronomical sources (quasars and pulsars) we are interested in. We therefore present a dynamic mask that will scan the sky and avoid pointing in directions that may be under threat of radio frequency interruption (RFI) from these satellites at a given time. We also present our database of all the potentially threatening satellites, that is updated daily and used to map out the satellites in the sky. Finally, we present results from actual tracking of a radio emitting satellites, and show how these affected our VLBI analysis.

VLBI↗
NASA NTRS2023

A Concept of Precise VLBI/GNSS Ties with Micro-VLBI

We present here a concept of measuring local ties between collocated GNSS and VLBI stations using the microwave technique that effectively transforms a GNSS receiver to an element of a VLBI network. This is achieved by modifying the signal chain that allows to transfer voltage of the GNSS antenna to a digitizer via a coaxial cable. We discuss the application of this technique to local tie measurement. We have performed observations with a GNSS antenna and FD-VLBA radiotelescope and detected a strong interferometric signal from both radiogalaxies and GNSS satellites.

Geodesy↗
DOE OSTI2020

SYMBA: An end-to-end VLBI synthetic data generation pipeline

Realistic synthetic observations of theoretical source models are essential for our understanding of real observational data. In using synthetic data, one can verify the extent to which source parameters can be recovered and evaluate how various data corruption effects can be calibrated. These studies are the most important when proposing observations of new sources, in the characterization of the capabilities of new or upgraded instruments, and when verifying model-based theoretical predictions in a direct comparison with observational data. We present the SYnthetic Measurement creator for long Baseline Arrays (SYMBA), a novel synthetic data generation pipeline for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations. SYMBA takes into account several realistic atmospheric, instrumental, and calibration effects. Here, we used SYMBA to create synthetic observations for the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a millimetre VLBI array, which has recently captured the first image of a black hole shadow. After testing SYMBA with simple source and corruption models, we study the importance of including all corruption and calibration effects, compared to the addition of thermal noise only. Using synthetic data based on two example general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) model images of M 87, we performed case studies to assess the image quality that can be obtained with the current and future EHT array for different weather conditions. Our synthetic observations show that the effects of atmospheric and instrumental corruptions on the measured visibilities are significant. Despite these effects, we demonstrate how the overall structure of our GRMHD source models can be recovered robustly with the EHT2017 array after performing calibration steps, which include fringe fitting, a priori amplitude and network calibration, and self-calibration. With the planned addition of new stations to the EHT array in the coming years, images could be reconstructed with higher angular resolution and dynamic range. In our case study, these improvements allowed for a distinction between a thermal and a non-thermal GRMHD model based on salient features in reconstructed images.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Multi-scale VLBI observations of the candidate host galaxy of GRB 200716C

We present the discovery and the subsequent follow up of radio emission from SDSS J130402.36+293840.6 (J1304+2938), the candidate host galaxy of the gamma-ray burst (GRB) GRB 200716C. The galaxy is detected in the RACS (0.89 GHz), the NVSS, the Apertif imaging survey, and the FIRST (1.4 GHz), the VLASS (3 GHz), and in public LOFAR (130–170 MHz), WISE (3.4–22 μm), and SDSS (z, i, r, g, u filters) data. The luminosity inferred at 1.4 GHz is (5.1 ± 0.2) × 10 30 erg s -1 Hz -1 . To characterise the emission and distinguish between different components within the galaxy, we performed dedicated, high-sensitivity and high-resolution observations with the European VLBI Network (EVN) + e-MERLIN at 1.6 and 5 GHz. We did not detect any emission from a compact core, suggesting that the presence of a radio-loud active galactic nucleus (AGN) is unlikely, and therefore we ascribe the emission observed in the public surveys to star-forming regions within the galaxy. We confirm and refine the redshift estimate, z = 0.341 ± 0.004, with a dedicated Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) spectroscopic observation. Finally, we compiled a list of all the known hosts of GRB afterglows detected in radio and computed the corresponding radio luminosity: if GRB 200716C belongs to J1304+2938, this is the third most radio-luminous host of a GRB, implying one of the highest star-formation rates (SFRs) currently known, namely SFR ~ 324±61 M ⊙ yr -1 . On the other hand, through the analysis of the prompt emission light curve, recent works suggest that GRB 200716C might be a short-duration GRB located beyond J1304+2938 and gravitationally lensed by an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) hosted by the galaxy. Neither the public data nor our Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations can confirm or rule out the presence of an IMBH acting as a (milli-)lens hosted by the galaxy, a scenario still compatible with the set of radio observations presented in this work.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Synoptic VLBI Technique for Localizing Nonrepeating Fast Radio Bursts with CHIME/FRB

We demonstrate the blind interferometric detection and localization of two fast radio bursts (FRBs) with subarcminute precision on the 400 m baseline between the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) and the CHIME Pathfinder. In the same spirit as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), the telescopes were synchronized to separate clocks, and the channelized voltage (herein referred to as baseband) data were saved to a disk with correlation performed offline. The simultaneous wide field of view and high sensitivity required for blind FRB searches implies a high data rate—6.5 terabits per second (Tb/s) for CHIME and 0.8 Tb s{sup −1} for the Pathfinder. Since such high data rates cannot be continuously saved, we buffer data from both telescopes locally in memory for ≈40 s, and write to the disk upon receipt of a low-latency trigger from the CHIME Fast Radio Burst Instrument (CHIME/FRB). The ≈200 deg{sup 2} field of view of the two telescopes allows us to use in-field calibrators to synchronize the two telescopes without needing either separate calibrator observations or an atomic timing standard. In addition to our FRB observations, we analyze bright single pulses from the pulsars B0329+54 and B0355+54 to characterize systematic localization errors. Our results demonstrate the successful implementation of key software, triggering, and calibration challenges for CHIME/FRB Outriggers: cylindrical VLBI outrigger telescopes which, along with the CHIME telescope, will localize thousands of single FRB events with sufficient precision to unambiguously associate a host galaxy with each burst.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Polarimetric Geometric Modeling for mm-VLBI Observations of Black Holes

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a millimeter very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) array that has imaged the apparent shadows of the supermassive black holes M87* and Sagittarius A*. Polarimetric data from these observations contain a wealth of information on the black hole and accretion flow properties. In this work, we develop polarimetric geometric modeling methods for mm-VLBI data, focusing on approaches that fit data products with differing degrees of invariance to broad classes of calibration errors. We establish a fitting procedure using a polarimetric “m-ring” model to approximate the image structure near a black hole. By fitting this model to synthetic EHT data from general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic models, we show that the linear and circular polarization structure can be successfully approximated with relatively few model parameters. We then fit this model to EHT observations of M87* taken in 2017. In total intensity and linear polarization, the m-ring fits are consistent with previous results from imaging methods. In circular polarization, the m-ring fits indicate the presence of event-horizon-scale circular polarization structure, with a persistent dipolar asymmetry and orientation across several days. The same structure was recovered independently of observing band, used data products, and model assumptions. Despite this broad agreement, imaging methods do not produce similarly consistent results. Our circular polarization results, which imposed additional assumptions on the source structure, should thus be interpreted with some caution. Polarimetric geometric modeling provides a useful and powerful method to constrain the properties of horizon-scale polarized emission, particularly for sparse arrays like the EHT.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1972

VLBI determination of synchronous equatorial satellite orbits.

A first-order theory of satellite orbit determination using time-difference data is developed for the case of a synchronous, equatorial spacecraft. Also, a first order error analysis is presented that permits one to estimate how errors in assumed or measured quantities affect the values of the derived orbital parameters. The theory is applied to observational data obtained during a series of VLBI (Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry) experiments conducted between stations at Rosman, North Carolina, and Mojave, California, using the ATS-3 satellite as a radio source. Orbit parameters derived from the VLBI data show good agreement with those determined by the ATS project office using more conventional tracking techniques.

Ross, S.↗
NASA NTRS1972

The VLBI time delay function for synchronous orbits

The VLBI is a satellite tracking technique that to date was applied largely to the tracking of synchronous orbits. These orbits are favorable for VLBI in that the remote satellite range allows continuous viewing from widely separated stations. The primary observable, geometric time delay is the time difference for signal propagation between satellite and baseline terminals. Extraordinary accuracy in angular position data on the satellite can be obtained by observation from baselines of continental dimensions. In satellite tracking though the common objective is to derive orbital elements. A question arises as to how the baseline vector bears on the accuracy of determining the elements. Our approach to this question is to derive an analytic expression for the time delay function in terms of Kepler elements and station coordinates. The analysis, which is for simplicity based on elliptic motion, shows that the resolution for the inclination of the orbital plane depends on the magnitude of the baseline polar component and the resolution for in-plane elements depends on the magnitude of a projected equatorial baseline component.

Rosenbaum, B.↗