A balloon-borne very long baseline interferometry experiment in the stratosphere: Systems design and developments. Issue 1 (1st January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Doi, Akihiro; Kono, Yusuke; Kimura, Kimihiro; Nakahara, Satomi; Oyama, Tomoaki; Okada, Nozomi; Satou, Yasutaka; Yamashita, Kazuyoshi; Matsumoto, Naoko; Baba, Mitsuhisa; Yasuda, Daisuke; Suzuki, Shunsaku; Hasegawa, Yutaka; Honma, Mareki; Tanaka, Hiroaki; Ishimura, Kosei; Murata, Yasuhiro; Shimomukai, Reiho; Tachi, Tomohiro; Saito, Kazuya; Watanabe, Naohiko; Bando, Nobutaka; Kameya, Osamu; Yonekura, Yoshinori; Sekido, Mamoru; Inoue, Yoshiyuki; Sakamoto, Hikaru; Kogiso, Nozomu; Shoji, Yasuhiro; Ogawa, Hideo; Fujisawa, Kenta; Narita, Masanao; Shibai, Hiroshi; Fuke, Hideyuki; Uehara, Kenta; Koyama, Shoko;
• Is Part Of: Advances in space research. Volume 63:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 779
• Page End: 793
• Publication Date: 2019-01-01
• Subjects: Balloon -- Interferometry -- Satellite system -- Radio telescopes -- Radio astronomy -- Black holes; Space sciences -- Periodicals; Astronautics -- Periodicals; Geophysics -- Periodicals; 500.505
• DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2018.09.020
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0273-1177

Abstract

Abstract: The balloon-borne very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) experiment is a technical feasibility study for performing radio interferometry in the stratosphere. The flight model has been developed. A balloon-borne VLBI station will be launched to establish interferometric fringes with ground-based VLBI stations distributed over the Japanese islands at an observing frequency of approximately 20 GHz as the first step. This paper describes the system design and development of a series of observing instruments and bus systems. In addition to the advantages of avoiding the atmospheric effects of absorption and fluctuation in high frequency radio observation, the mobility of a station can improve the sampling coverage (" uv -coverage") by increasing the number of baselines by the number of ground-based counterparts for each observation day. This benefit cannot be obtained with conventional arrays that solely comprise ground-based stations. The balloon-borne VLBI can contribute to a future progress of research fields such as black holes by direct imaging.