Geodetic interferometry submission for the IUGG Quadrennial Report Reviews of Geophysics and Space Physics

In the previous Quadrennial Report, Counselman [1975] discussed the developments of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) from the inception of the technique in 1967 through circa 1974 as they apply to disciplines related to Geodesy. Other review papers and bibliographic sources which provide valuable reference material to document the developments in VLBI include Benjauthrit [1978], Cohen [1973], Counselman [1973, 1976], Fanselow [1978], and Moran [1975, 1976]. In this report, we will review the development of VLBI instrumentation and analytical techniques, the efforts to provide “absolute” calibration and verify the inherent accuracy of interferometric techniques and the applications of these techniques to problems of geodesy, geophysics and related disciplines. Finally we will discuss the present and future programs which will use radio interferometry as a measurement tool, including some forecasts of the future.