The Definition of the Terrestrial Coordinate Frame by Long Baseline Interferometry

Abstract

This paper examines the question of the definition of the celestial and terrestrial coordinate frames by the technique of long baseline interferometry. It demonstrates how the celestial coordinate frame may be usefully defined in terms of basis 1-forms associated with the advancing phase fronts of the radiation fields from compact radio sources using only interferometer observables. The paper then proceeds to show how the terrestrial coordinate frame could be usefully defined, incorporating fully the effects of plate tectonics and secular motion of the observatories, by an application of the theory of continuum mechanics to interferometer observations.