Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is an advanced technique for precisely measuring the difference between the times

more than two antennas receive a particular radio signal at the same moment, utilizing radio waves from deep space as far as several billion light years away.

In geodetic VLBI, we obtain the relative positions between the antennas analyzing the receiving time differences with various radio sources. VLBI is an advanced space geodetic technique that can measure a distance of thousands of kilometers between its antennas with an accuracy of few millimeters, by receiving radio signals from deep space as far as several billion light years away.

1) Giant parabola antennas receive faint radio signals emitted from far-distant celestial objects*. Due to the position difference between the antennas, there is a slight difference of about 0 to 0.02 seconds between the antennas in the receiving time of a particular signal from the same object. This delay time is measured to a precision of one 10-billionth of a second with a precise atomic clock installed at each antenna (see right picture). 2) By multiplying the delay time and the velocity of radio waves (about 300,000 km/s), we can obtain the distance between the antennas viewed from the direction of the radio waves (see above figure). 3) If we repeat such a measurement to three or more celestial objects at different directions in space, we can obtain the three-dimensional relative positions between the antennas. Normally one observation, lasting for 24 hours, yields 1,200 GB of data (worth of 2,000 CD-ROMs) per station from a total of about 500 celestial objects. 4) VLBI antennas around the world performing an observation together, it is possible to know the three dimensional position of each antenna as well as the rotation of the Earth.

VLBI enabled a direct measurement of plate motions, which are the driving forces of large earthquakes at plate boundaries. The Earth's outer layer (crust and rigid upper mantle) is fragmented into a dozen or more plates that are moving relative to one another. Collisions and subductions of the plates lead to large earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other geophysical phenomena at plate boundaries. Although plate motions were confirmed by geological and geomorphologic evidences, direct measurements of plate motions were difficult because they are small in quantity and global in scale. The emergence of space geodetic techniques such as VLBI made it possible for the first time to measure present-day plate motions. VLBI measurement results are utilized as the basis for Earthquake Research.

VLBI plays an indispensable role in maintaining the International Terrestrial Reference System, the world standard for defining three dimensional positions (latitude, longitude, and height) on Earth. Land surveying and navigation require a geodetic reference system, a combination of ground-based control points and a set of site coordinates of those points. With the introduction of space geodetic techniques such as VLBI and GPS that can measure the Earth from space, the world common geodetic reference system becomes reality for the first time.

Using extragalactic objects, VLBI is one of the few technologies able to determine the Earth's rotation and orientation.