Improvement of Geodetic Parameters Estimation by Continuous VLBI Campaign 2017 Using a Simulated Station in the Middle East

Abstract Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) is one of the most important techniques in geodesy. In this technique the differences between arrival times of a radio signal at two or more different stations is obtained. Important information can be determined by VLBI; the most important products of VLBI data processing are Earth Orientation Parameters (EOPs) and International Celestial Reference Frames (ICRFs). Other important parameters can be determined by VLBI are International Terrestrial Reference Frames (ITRFs), light deflection parameter, motion parameters of tectonic plates, Love and Shida numbers and ionospheric and tropospheric parameters. Baseline Length Repeatability (BLR) is an indicator for improvement of geodetic parameters estimation. Such that the smaller BLR the better parameter accuracy. The improvement of BLR by adding a simulated VLBI station to Legacy-1 and Legacy-2 networks that used in the Continuous VLBI Campaign 2017 (CONT17) is investigated. Due to adding a new station, new baselines are created that do not exist in CONT17; for this reason, the changes of BLR in the common baselines is estimated. Our purpose is determination of optimal location for establishing a VLBI station in Middle East because there is no VLBI station in this region. We show that construction of a new station in Oman and Saudi Arabia improves the BLR in Legacy-1 and Legacy-2 networks by about 3.3% and 7.4%, respectively.