Long-Term Stability of Radio Sources in VLBI Analysis

Positional stability of radio sources is an important requirement for modeling of only one source position for the complete length of VLBI data of presently more than 20 years. The stability of radio sources can be verified by analyzing time series of radio source coordinates. One approach is a statistical test for normal distribution of residuals to the weighted mean for each radio source component of the time series. Systematic phenomena in the time series can thus be detected. Nevertheless, an inspection of rate estimation and weighted root-mean-square (WRMS) variations about the mean is also necessary. On the basis of the time series computed by the BKG group in the frame of the ICRF2 working group, 226 stable radio sources with an axis stability of 10 as could be identified. They include 100 ICRF2 axes-defining sources which are determined independently of the method applied in the ICRF2 working group. 29 stable radio sources with a source structure index of less than 3.0 can also be used to increase the number of 295 ICRF2 defining sources.