Current Status of the Key Stone Project

Noriyuki Kurihara
Kashima Space Research Center
Communications Research Laboratory
893-1 Hirai, Kashima, Ibaraki 314, Japan

Development of VLBI stations dedicated to the KSP, which monitors crustal deformation around the Tokyo metropolitan area with a space geodetic technique, started in FY1993. Three of four VLBI stations have already been completed construction. Daily observations on the baseline between Kashima and Koganei have been carried out since January 1995. The last one will be constructed during this fiscal year. Current timetable of development of each KSP station is as follows. 

                 Timeable of Each Station's Development
================================================================================
              KOGANEI           KASHIMA            MIURA            TATEYAMA 
    year      Center            Sub-Center     
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Data acquisition  Data acquisition Data acquisition 
 Oct.1995     System            System           System  
                 monitoring        monitoring       monitoring 
 Dec.1995     Concentrated      Concentrated               
                 controlling       controlling            
 Mar.1996                                                         Data
                                                                   acquisition
                                                                  System 
                                                                   monitoring
================================================================================

Data processing and analysis system

VLBI data are processed and analyzed routinely at Koganei Central station. New correlator dedicated to the KSP is just about ready for the routine processing. Presently careful check out comparing the correlation results between KSP and the conventional one (K3 correlator) tests combining both hardware and software are going on. We will enter the routine operation phase of the correlator by the end of FY1995 (March, 1996).

Future Plans

Real time VLBI, in which digitized data are transferred to the correlator through high speed communication link (optical fiber) instead of tape recording, will be realized on the KSP baselines in near future.



Updated on November 2, 1995. Return to CONTENTS