Optimizing schedules for the VLBI global observing system

Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) scheduling is a challenging optimization problem. With the development of the new VLBI global observing system (VGOS) consisting of smaller but very fast slewing antennas, new opportunities arise. In this work, we give a deep insight into optimized VGOS scheduling using a newly developed VLBI scheduling software called VieSched++, and we show how different scheduling parameters and approaches affect the precision of geodetic results. Therefore, the results of over one thousand generated schedules and over one million simulated sessions are analyzed. The simulations reveal that the most important parameters to optimize VGOS schedules with VieSched++ are the so-called weight factors. A proper selection of individually optimized weight factors can improve the quality of a schedule significantly. It is shown that the values of the weight factors used to generate the schedule are highly correlated with the expected precision of the geodetic parameters. We highlight the benefit of selecting schedules based on large-scale Monte Carlo simulations and show why scheduling statistics like the number of observations or the sky-coverage are not necessarily the best metric to evaluate schedules.