The latency of UT1 measurement with Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) has been greatly reduced by using e-VLBI technology. VLBI observations on the baseline formed by the Kashima 34-m and the Onsala 20-m radio telescopes achieved ultra-rapid UT1 measurements, where the UT1 result was obtained within 30 min after the end of the observing session. A high speed network and a UDP-based data transfer protocol 'Tsunami' assisted the high data rate and long-distance data transfer from Onsala to Kashima. The accuracy of the UT1 value obtained from the 1-h single baseline e-VLBI experiment has been confirmed to be as the same level with the rapid combined solution of Bulletin-A. The newly developed technology is going to be transferred to the regular intensive VLBI sessions, and it is expected to contribute to the improved latency and accuracy of UT1 data.

Radio frequency (RF) direct sampling is a technique used to sample RF signals that are higher than the sampling rate, without the use of a frequency converter and an anti-aliasing filter. In the case of geodetic VLBI, the RF frequency is at most 9 GHz. Recently, a digital sampler with high sensitivity at RF frequencies greater than 10 GHz was developed. The sampler enables us to evaluate the use of the RF direct sampling technique in geodetic VLBI. RF direct sampling has the potential to make the system simple and stable because, unlike a conventional system, analog frequency converters are not used. We have developed two sets of RF direct sampling systems and operated them on Kashima and Tsukuba baseline (about 50 km length) in Japan. At first, we carried out the VLBI experiment only for X band (8 GHz) signals and successfully got the first fringes. Aliased signals could be discriminated through correlation processing. Then, we adopted RF direct sampling for mixed signals, i.e., S band (2 GHz) and X band signals are combined with each other to make a geodetic VLBI observation. We carried out a 24 hr geodetic VLBI session on 2011 October 19 and succeeded in fringe detection for both S and X bands. After correlation processing, baseline analysis was carried out and we got results consistent with those obtained by conventional VLBI.

We present earth rotation results from the ultrarapid operations during the continuous VLBI campaigns CONT11 and CONT14. The baseline Onsala-Tsukuba, i.e., using two out of the 13 and 17 stations contributing to CONT11 and CONT14, respectively, was used to derive UT1-UTC in ultra-rapid mode during the ongoing campaigns. The latency between a new observation and a new UT1-UTC result was less than 10 min for more than 95% of the observations. The accuracy of the derived ultra-rapid UT1-UTC results is approximately a factor of three worse than results from optimized one-baseline sessions and/or complete analysis of large VLBI networks. This is, however, due to that the one-baseline picked from the CONT campaigns is not optimized for earth rotation determination. Our results prove that the 24/7 operation mode planned for VGOS, the next-generation VLBI system, is possible already today. However, further improvements in data connectivity of stations and correlators as well in the automated analysis are necessary to realize the ambitious VGOS plans.Keywords VLBI · Earth rotation parameter · UT1-UTC · Ultra-rapid operations · VGOS · 24/7 mode B Rüdiger Haas

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