Antenna Sites
Table 1 gives the geographic locations of the ten stations comprising the VLBA, ordered from East through West. All locations are based on the WGS84 ellipsoid used by the GPS system, with Earth radius [inline]a=6378.137\: \rm{km}[/inline] and flattening [inline]1/f=298.257223563[/inline]. See Napier (1995) for further site information.
| North | West | |||
| Latitude | Longitude | Elevation | Code | |
| Location | [° ′ ″] | [ ° ′ ″] | [m] | |
| Saint Croix, VI | 17:45:23.68 | 64:35:01.07 | 16 | SC |
| Hancock, NH | 42:56:00.99 | 71:59:11.69 | 296 | HN |
| North Liberty, IA | 41:46:17.13 | 91:34:26.88 | 222 | NL |
| Fort Davis, TX | 30:38:06.11 | 103:56:41.34 | 1606 | FD |
| Los Alamos, NM | 35:46:30.45 | 106:14:44.15 | 1962 | LA |
| Pie Town, NM | 34:18:03.61 | 108:07:09.06 | 2365 | PT |
| Kitt Peak, AZ | 31:57:22.70 | 111:36:44.72 | 1902 | KP |
| Owens Valley, CA | 37:13:53.95 | 118:16:37.37 | 1196 | OV |
| Brewster, WA | 48:07:52.42 | 119:40:59.80 | 250 | BR |
| Mauna Kea, HI | 19:48:04.97 | 155:27:19.81 | 3763 | MK |
Several other radio telescopes often participate in VLBI observing in conjunction with the VLBA. A High Sensitivity Array (HSA) currently comprises the VLBA, Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) -- all NRAO facilities, plus Arecibo (operated by the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center), and Effelsberg (operated by the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie). A separate document presents a more detailed description of the HSA; locations of the HSA telescopes are listed in Table 2. HSA observing proposals are addressed on a separate page of this document.
The phased VLA rejoined the HSA as of observing semester 2013A, after a three-year gap during construction of the EVLA. An expanded (but still partial) set of modes will be available for semester 2014A.
The VLBA joins with the European VLBI Network (EVN) in a cm-wave Global VLBI Network during EVN sessions, and with networks of geodetic stations during global campaigns. Proposals for these and other, less frequent worldwide collaborative observations are addressed on a separate page of this document.
