Location: Radio telescopes near Parkes, Cooabarabran, Narrabri, Ceduna and Tasmania
Country: Wiradjuri, Gomeroi, Wirangu, Palawa, and others
LGA:Parkes, Wurrambungle and Narrabri Shire Councils, District Council of Ceduna, Tasmania
Regions: Many and varied
Website: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/facilities/long-baseline-array/
The Long Baseline Array (LBA) connects radio telecopes operated by CSIRO’s Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF) and other institutions using a technique called very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) to produce high-resolution radio images of astronomical objects.
Instruments that are part of the LBA include Murriyang, at the Parkes Observatory, Mopra near Coonabarabran, and two antennas operated by the University of Tasmania at Hobart in Tasmania and Ceduna in South Australia.
Top feature photo: Mopra Telescope, Coonabarabran, CSIRO Radio Astronomy Image Archive
CSIRO: Long Base Array
The Long Baseline Array is a large-scale telescope arrangement that combines our ATNF telescopes with other instruments around the country using technique known as very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). The signals from each of the antennas are correlated to create high-resolution images.
Unlike ATCA, where the data from each antenna is correlated as it is collected, VLBI is carried out by observing at various telescopes in the network relatively independently of each other. The raw data is transported to a correlator facility and correlated there in real time. Since 2015, the main VLBI correlation for the LBA is done at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre using the DiFX software correlator.
Below: Video interview with Canberra astrophysicist Dr David Jauncey about his pioneering work in the field of Very Long Baseline Interferometry and some of the discoveries he and his colleagues made.
Very Long Baseline Interferometry, Geoscience Australia, 2017
Geodetic Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations provided the first direct confirmation of tectonic plate motion at the end of the 1980s. Now VLBI observations measure the motions of stations with accuracy better than 1mm/year together with other space geodetic techniques such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) analysis.
VLBI observations to stable distant quasars are an important component for the establishment of a reference system of coordinates in the sky – defining the Celestial Reference Frame.
The radio system (positions derived from radio observations to quasars) has replaced the traditional optical reference system based on star positions. The optical system which was used for the past 200 years had an average accuracy (of star positions) to about 10 milliarcseconds (equivalent to 0″.01).
The current average accuracy of quasar positions observed by radiosystems is about 0.1-0.2 milliarcseconds (50-100 times better); therefore the International Astronomical Union has recommended using radiosystems for the definition of The International Celestial Reference Frame.
The Southern Hemisphere Long Baseline Array, by Phil Edwards, Chris J Phillips, Cormac Reynolds and George Head, CSIRO Space & Astronomy, Epping NSW, published in Proceedings of the XXXVth General Assembly of Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale (URSI), in Sapporo, Japan, August 2023.
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Page created 15 January, 2025. Last updated 26 September, 2025,
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