Precise VLBI surveying at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex

Abstract

The new DSS65 antenna (34 m) located at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Comp1ex (MDSCC) has been equipped with standard (MkIII) S-band and X-band geodetic VLBI instrumentation. This equipment upgrade enables DSS65 to participate in the Crustal Dynamics Project and other global geodynamical campaigns. With the purposes of al establishing continuity between the results of the past campaigns which involved other MDSCC antennas and b) providing scheduling flexibility, a high precision VLBI experiment has been performed between the DSS63 (70 m) and DSS65 antennas and correlated at the Caltech/JPL Block 11 Correlator. The DSS63-DSS65 baseline has been measured with a formal uncertainty of a few millimeters (mm). Systematic measurement errors are estimated to be approximately 10 mm. The results of this experiment, combined with previous local VLBI surveys, provide the required complete set of vector baselines for DSS61/63/65.