Time and frequency optical fiber links for space metrology

Author

Calonico, D. ; Clivati, C. ; Frittelli, M. ; Mura, A. ; Zucco, M. ; Levi, F. ; Perini, F. ; Bortolotti, C. ; Roma, M. ; Ambrosini, R. ; Costanzo, G.A.

Author_Institution

INRIM Ist. Naz. di Ricerca Metrol., Turin, Italy

fYear

2015

fDate

4-5 June 2015

Firstpage

204

Lastpage

208

Abstract

Optical fiber links offer the best performance to transfer time and frequency. They are beneficial to primary metrology, and there is a strong effort to develop a European network of T&F fiber links. In Italy, we realized a coherent optical fiber link from the National Metrological Institute INRIM to the INAF radio-antennas in Medicina, Bologna and the physics laboratories in Sesto Fiorentino, for a total haul of 642 km. We demonstrated the transfer of primary frequency references to the radio-antenna in Medicina, with potential impact for future development in radioastronomy and VLBI. The extension of this link targets to arrive to Matera, at the Space Geodesy Center of ASI. We describe here the space metrology interests of the optical fiber link, the present set-up of the experiment the preliminary results and the future developments.

Keywords

optical fibre communication; optical links; radioastronomy; INAF radio-antennas; National Metrological Institute; VLBI; coherent optical fiber link; primary frequency references; radioastronomy; space geodesy center; space metrology; Atomic clocks; Laser stability; Optical fiber networks; Optical fibers; frequency space metrology; geodesy; optical fiber link; radioastronomy; vlbi;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Metrology for Aerospace (MetroAeroSpace), 2015 IEEE

Conference_Location

Benevento

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MetroAeroSpace.2015.7180654

Filename

7180654