Connecting VLBI and Gaia celestial reference frames
Zinovy Malkin

TL;DR
This paper reviews the current efforts and challenges in accurately linking the Gaia optical celestial reference frame with the VLBI-based radio frame, proposing methods to improve the alignment precision.
Contribution
It discusses recent work on the GCRF-ICRF link and suggests using fainter optical sources and radio stars to enhance link accuracy.
Findings
Use of optical sources up to magnitude 20 could improve link accuracy.
Radio stars offer a potential independent method for frame alignment.
Systematic and random errors significantly impact the link precision.
Abstract
The current state of the link problem between radio and optical celestial reference frames is considered. The main objectives of the investigations in this direction during the next few years are the preparation of a comparison and the mutual orientation and rotation between the optical {\it Gaia} Celestial Reference Frame (GCRF) and the 3rd generation radio International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF3), obtained from VLBI observations. Both systems, ideally, should be a realization of the ICRS (International Celestial Reference System) at micro-arcsecond level accuracy. Therefore, the link accuracy between the ICRF and GCRF should be obtained with similar error level, which is not a trivial task due to relatively large systematic and random errors in source positions at different frequency bands. In this paper, a brief overview of recent work on the GCRF--ICRF link is presented.…
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