GLOBAL VLBI

Chairman Jonathan D. Romney

Under the chairmanship of Richard Schilizzi this WG, working with the IVS, has achieved a major success in implementing standard electronic and software interfaces for future VLBI systems. However, VLBI continues to expand rapidly in many directions and constant coordination is vital. The tasks that will occupy this WG in the near future are the recommendation of standard interfaces for data transmitted over fiber optic links and for "off the shelf" tape recorders. An additional concern is working out a compatible scheme for handling data from the two existing 1-Gigabit recording systems, which are currently incompatible. Important issues about space VLBI, including HALCA and its follow on missions, continue to arise.