Paper detail

Comparison and Combination of CRF Catalogues

In 2007, a joint IERS/IVS Working Group has been established to consider practical issues of creating the next ICRF generation, ICRF-2. The goal of the WG is to seek after ways to improve the existing ICRF. In this study we investigate a possibility of ICRF improvement by means of using combined ICRF catalogue instead of a catalogue computed in a single analysis centre, even though using most advanced models and software. In this work, we present a new version of Pulkovo combined catalogue of radio source positions computed using the method proposed in \cite{SokMal07}. Radio source catalogues that were submitted in 2007 in the framework of the WG activity were used as input for mutual comparison and combination. Four combined catalogues have been calculated: Two first of them provide a stochastic improvement of the ICRF, and last two of them allow us to account also for systematic errors in the current ICRF version.