Subject: [IGSMAIL-1168] Fifth IGS Governing Board Meeting in San Francisco
From: G. Beutler
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 3:48:39 PST

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IGS Electronic Mail      Fri Dec 22  3:48:39 PST 1995      Message Number 1168
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Author: G. Beutler
Subject: Fifth IGS Governing Board Meeting in San Francisco

Dear colleagues,

The fifth IGS Governing Board Meeting took place on December 11, 1995 at the
San Francisco Hilton Hotel. It was, as usual, a long but a very fruitful
meeting. Let me briefly address the following agenda items:

- Central Bureau Report
- Elections/Appointments of new Governing Board Members
- Modification of the Terms of Reference
- AC Coordinator Report
- Pilot Project "Densification of the ITRF using GPS"
- Other Business

Central Bureau Report
---------------------
We are now looking back to two years of official IGS operations.  In 1995
the proceedings of the IGS Workshop on the "Densification of the IERS
Terrestrial Reference Frame through Regional GPS Analyses" were
distributed, the proceedings of the Potsdam Workshop "Special Topics and
New Directions" will be available in the near future.  Of particular
interest is the first annual report "1994 IGS Annual Report" which was
distributed by the end of November 1995.  The document gives an impressive
overview of the IGS activities in its first year of operations.  The IGS
chairman congratulated the editors Jim Zumberge, Robert Liu, and Ruth
Neilan for their fine work!  The hope was expressed that the next annual
report will be of the same technical and editorial standard and that it
will be available earlier in the year.  An updated version of the IGS
Colleague Directory containing the modified terms of reference, the updated
lists of Governing Board Members and Associate IGS Members, and updated
addresses will be ready for distribution early in 1996.

IGS Governing Board Members
---------------------------
According to the terms of reference six members of the Governing Board are
elected by the Associate Members, two (one each) are appointed by IAG and
IERS, three are members ex officio (director of Central Bureau (Ruth
Neilan), IGS representative to IERS (Bill Melbourne), president Section II
of IAG (or Commission VIII)), and four are appointed by the Governing Board
upon recommendation of the Central Bureau.

According to the revised terms of reference (see below) the members
(other than those ex officio) are elected/appointed for four years, one
re-election/re-appointment is possible.  The terms were staggered initially
to allow for continuity in the Governing Board. Three members had to be
elected resp. confirmed by the IGS Associates by the end of 1995, all four
members appointed by the GB had to be re-evaluated this time because
according to the "old" terms of reference there were only two-year terms
for the appointed members.

Yehuda Bock, Jan Kouba, and John Dow were elected for a second period,
Geoff Blewitt from University of Newcastle was elected for a two-year term
as Analysis Center representative (filling the position originally taken by
G.  Beutler). Chris Reigber (GFZ) and John Manning (AUSLIG) were appointed
by the GB for four-year periods, Gerry Mader and Bob Schutz for two-year
periods.

The following Table gives an overview of the former and current IGS GB
members. The chairman and the director of the Central Bureau expressed
their thanks to those leaving the GB, namely C. Boucher and T. Kato for
their contributions during the important initial development phase of the
IGS. C. Boucher and T. Kato were already members of the IGS Campaign
Oversight Committee from 1991-1993.

              IGS Governing Board Members

       1994-1995                   1996- ....

-------------------------------------------------------
G. Beutler (e,4y)                  G. Blewitt (e)
Y. Bock    (e,2y)                  Y. Bock    (e,4y)
C. Boucher (a,2y)                  Ch. Reigber (a,4y,GB)
J. Dow     (e,2y)                  J. Dow     (e,4y)
B. Engen   (e,4y)                  B. Engen   (e,2y)
J. Kouba   (e,2y)                  J. Kouba   (e,4y)
C. Noll    (e,4y)                  C. Noll    (e,2y)
M. Feissel (a,IERS)                M. Feissel (a,IERS)
I. Mueller (a,IAG)                 I. Mueller (a,IAG)
T. Kato    (a,2y,GB)               J. Manning (a,4y,GB)
G. Mader   (a,2y,GB)               G. Mader   (a,2y,GB)
Ch. Reigber (a,2y)                 B. Schutz (a,2y,GB)
B. Melbourne (x)                   B. Melbourne (x)
R. Neilan  (x)                     R. Neilan  (x)
B. Schutz  (x)                     G. Beutler (x)
-------------------------------------------------------
e : elected, a: appointed, x ex officio
-------------------------------------------------------

Modifications of the Terms of Reference
---------------------------------------
The terms of reference were modified to simplify the structure of the
Governing Board. Originally the distinction was made between voting and
non-voting members; also, the members appointed by the GB were given 2 year
terms only. Since the adoption of the modified terms of reference all
GB members are voting members and all (except Bob Schutz and G. Mader, who
were initially assigned to 2-year terms) will have to serve (at least) one
four-year period in the GB.

Apart from that modifications were made in the section "Network of Tracking
Stations". In future only permanent tracking stations are eligible
as IGS stations. A permanent tracking station is called an IGS station, if
its data are regularly analysed by at least one IGS (Associate) Analysis
Center. If its data are analysed by at least three Analysis Centers (where
at least one has to lie on a different continent than the tracking station)
the IGS station is in addition called an IGS Global Station. The ensemble
of the IGS stations forms the IGS polyhedron.

With a very high probability the IGS will become a FAGS Service in the near
future (FAGS=Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Data Analysis
Services).  As soon as this happens, FAGS will ask for a representation in
the IGS GB.  In order NOT to increase the membership of the GB it is
planned to have a single person representing IAG and/or FAGS. If the joint
representation will prove to be non practical, IAG will be represented by
IAG officers currently on the GB. In any case the IGS elections will no
longer be organized by the IAG representative but by a committee of three
GB members, the chair of which wil be appointed by the IGS chairperson.

An e-mail version of the modified terms of reference will be made available
through IGSMAIL in the very near future.

IGS Analysis Center Report
--------------------------
Since mid 1995 the IGS Analysis Center Coordinator produces not only a
combined IGS orbit, but also a combined IGS pole (consistent with the
orbit). This fact had a major impact on the actual computation of the
IERS poles (IGSMAIL 1072).

The IGS Analysis Coordinator gave an overview of the topics to be discussed
at the upcoming Analysis Center Workshop in March. Important issues for the
future are (1) production of a combined IGS Rapid Orbit (within hours
rather than days), (2) estimation of the precipitable water content, (3)
estimation of ionosphere models using the IGS data. It is expected that the
next steps in these projects will be discussed and actions decided at the
March Analysis Center Workshop.

The Analysis Center Coordinator will coordinate the implementation of the
ITRF94, which became available in November 1994.  The goal is to start
using the ITRF94 within the IGS in a coordinated way very early in 1996.

Densification of the ITRF through regional GPS campaigns
--------------------------------------------------------
The Analysis Center Coordinator gave an overview of the state of the IGS
Pilot Project "Densification of the ITRF through Regional GPS Analyses".
Regular comparisons of free network solutions as produced by IGS Analysis
Centers are available since September 1995. Today six out of seven IGS
Analysis Centers make available weekly SINEX files containing the
information to reconstruct free network solutions, three Associate Analysis
Centers of Type 2 (AAC-T2), namely JPL, Massachussetts Institute
of Techology, University of Newcastle are producing weekly reports. The two
latter centers are also producing combined network solutions every week.
A very high degree of consistency between the six network solutions is
reported by the AAC-T2 (of the order of a few millimeters for horizontal
positions, of the order of 1 cm for the heights). This development is most
encouraging.

The next step in this pilot project will consist of the distribution of an
"Announcement of Opportunity for Associate Analysis Centers of Type-1"
through IGS mail. It was decided that this Announcement shall be prepared
by the IGS Chairman and the Analysis Center Coordinator and that the
distribution should take place either late in December 1995 or early in
January 1996.

Other Business
--------------
On December 2, 1995 Carey Noll gave birth to the second daughter Haley
Aline of the Noll-Emmons family.  The GB took positive notice of this very
pleasant event going -- in a certain sense -- beyond pure IGS matters.
Congratulations, Carey!

Let me furthermore take the opportiunity at the end of this report and at
the end of the second year of IGS operations to thank all individuals and
organizations contributing to the IGS.  Let us keep in mind that all the
useful developments we could observe within the IGS in past were only
possible through the continued voluntary support of many governmental and
scientific institutions of the international community of geodesy,
geodynamcs, surveying, and mapping.  We are counting on the same kind of
commitment in the future, too!

Let me finally wish everybody

A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR (1996 ALIAS YEAR 3 OF IGS
                                        OPERATIONS).

                                                    Gerhard Beutler
                                                    Chair,
                                                    IGS Governing Board

[Mailed From: Gerhard Beutler <[email-masked]>]