The Radio Fundamental Catalog. I. Astrometry

Abstract We present an all-sky catalog of absolute positions and estimates of correlated flux density of 21,942 compact radio sources determined from processing interferometric visibility data of virtually all very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observing sessions at 2–23 GHz from 72 programs suitable for absolute astrometry collected for 30 yr. We used a novel technique of generation of a data set of fused observables that allowed us to incorporate all available data in our analysis. The catalog is the most complete and most precise to date. It forms the foundation and reference for positional astronomy, space geodesy, space navigation, and population analysis of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and…

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  National Aeronautics and Space Administration