What does VGOS mean in UNCLASSIFIED

VGOS stands for VLBI2010 Global Observing System. It is a worldwide network of radio telescopes that provides precise observations of Earth's orientation, rotation, and gravity field.

Information about VGOS can be found on the official website at http://www.vlbi2010.org/homepage/.

VGOS works by using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), which combines signals from the radio telescope antennas located around the world to capture images of objects that would otherwise be too far away or too faint for single antennas to detect. This data is then analyzed to measure Earth's orientation and rotation parameters with high accuracy.

Many scientific and organizational entities benefit from the use of VGOS, including researchers studying Earth-related phenomena such as tectonic plate movement, climate change, sea level rise, and global navigation satellite systems used for navigation and positioning. In addition, space agencies use it for remote sensing applications such as gravitational mapping or satellite tracking purposes.

The main advantages of using VGOS include its high accuracy in measuring Earth's parameters with sub-millimetre accuracy; its high reliability due to its distributed architecture; its ability to observe more than one source at once; its rapid turnaround times; and its low operational costs compared to other astronomical observation networks such as optical observatories.