Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI)

Discover how radio telescopes across the world work together to measure the Earth’s position and rotation in space and why billions of people depend on it every day.

Understand the principles of VLBI and why radio telescopes are needed for establishing a global coordinate system. Click here to learn more.

Discover how the VLBI technique supports the satellite navigation systems our society relies on every day. Click here to learn more.

Learn about the radio beacons that make high-precision Earth measurements possible. Click here to learn more.

Explore the scale of VLBI data size and how the data are transferred for processing. Click here to learn more.

Discover how Australia contributes to global VLBI with radio telescopes and compute power. Click here to learn more.

Watch the Hobart 26-metre radio telescope in motion and read about how it travelled from Canberra to Tasmania. Click here to learn more.

What is VLBI?

Why we need VLBI

Radio sources in space

Data size and transfer

VLBI in Australia

Hobart 26-metre radio telescope

This experimental AuScope science communication project was conducted in collaboration with Geoscience Australia and the University of Tasmania (UTAS).

It has been designed, created and produced by Dr David Schunck and Dr Lucia McCallum from the geodetic VLBI research group at the University of Tasmania.

All graphics and animations on this website may be used freely for educational and non-commercial purposes with appropriate attribution.