Phase referencing technique: A new direction of radio interferometry in deep space navigation

Celestial frame tie from simulations using phase referencing to GNSS satellites

“…Most of the errors in the signal propagation and from the ground segments are eliminated by switching observations between the target and the calibrator with a small angular separation over a short time interval. Phase referencing plays a vital role in connecting reference frames (Lestrade et al 1995) and has become an important observing method in deep space exploration, that is, Moon exploration and Mars exploration (Lanyi et al 2005;Zhou et al 2014;Haas et al 2017). When the angular distance between the target and calibrator is smaller than the beam width of the VLBI telescope, two kinds of signals can be received at VLBI antennas simultaneously, which is a technique referred to as same beam interferometry (Gao et al 2019).…”

“…This method was applied to position Chang'E 3 and the lunar satellite SELENE. Furthermore, phase referencing synthetic imaging in astronomy has been successfully applied in the precise positioning of the Yutu patrol instrument of the Chang'E 3 project (Tong et al 2014;Klopotek et al 2019;Zhou et al 2014Zhou et al , 2015Li et al 2013). With a wide range of applications, namely in geodesy, satellite altimetry, natural disaster monitoring and early warning, GNSS has grown into an indispensable precise positioning and navigation tool used daily in different fields.…”