Message-ID: <3A714FC4.1A640A2F@gfz-potsdam.de> Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 11:21:57 +0100 From: "Prof. Ch. Reigber" To: igsmail@igscb.jpl.nasa.gov Subject: [IGSMAIL-3184]: Update from the December 2000 Governing Board Meetings Sender: owner-igsmail Precedence: bulk ****************************************************************************** IGS Electronic Mail 26 Jan 02:18:38 PST 2001 Message Number 3184 ****************************************************************************** Author: Ch. Reigber Dear IGS colleagues, Over the past year the IGS has again experienced great success in many areas. The IGS continues to thrive as new applications emerge and fundamental IGS systems and processes continually improve. This is due to the concerted effort of each of our contributing organizations and individuals. On behalf of the Governing Board, I would like to thank each of you sincerely. The year 2000 was also a new experience for the GB, beginning with important changes in board membership. December 1999 saw the departure of Ivan Mueller, Bill Melbourne, Jan Kouba and Yehuda Bock, each of these had been members of the board since the inception of the IGS and their collective talents greatly helped to shape the organization. For your reference the current board members are included at the end of this message. The main activities this past year addressed by the GB include the development of a strategic plan for the IGS for the coming years and a focus on the IGS working group activities. IGS Strategic Planning Summary With the tremendous growth of IGS and an increase in demanding applications it was decided at the June meeting of the GB to appoint a planning group to coordinate a strategic planning process for the board. The IGS is mature and diverse enough to warrant a close look at what the focus should be over the next five years, how to achieve the key goals and objectives that are identified, and how best to continue the success and benefits accomplished to date. The GB is committed to complete the IGS Strategic Plan by June 2001. The planning group was approved by the GB in June and consists of the following people: Norman Beck, NRCan; Gerhard Beutler, AIUB; John Manning, AUSLIG; Bill Melbourne, JPL; Angie Moore, IGS CB; Ivan Mueller, retired OSU; Ruth Neilan, IGSCB; Jim Ray, USNO; Chris Reigber, GFZ; and Robert Serafin, NCAR. The Central Bureau retained an excellent planning consultant, Haig Bazoian, to facilitate the process. The planning committee was involved in preparation of materials with Bazoian throughout the summer of 2000, and met as a smaller group at BKG in Frankfurt during early September. This initial meeting was a two-day session aimed at preparing material for a retreat with the entire GB in December. The main points discussed were the strengths and challenges of the IGS, the three most important strategies that should be adopted, the IGS mission and long term objectives. This preliminary material was distributed to the GB in October. Additional input was solicited from each GB member and we met as a large group in Napa Valley CA on December 12 & 13, just prior to the AGU. Additional invitees to this meeting were Werner Gurtner/AIUB, Gordon Johnston/RACAL, David Simpson/ IRIS and Pascal Willis/IGN. This was a very good meeting with refinement of the strategies and identification of actions that need to be taken over the next years. The next steps are to complete the meeting summary and develop the draft document of the strategic plan by March. The GB plans its next meeting in conjunction with the EGS in Nice March 25, 2001. The document will be reviewed and the IGS hopes to make a presentation to the IAG Executive Committee later that week and gain approval of the plan. The strategic plan discussions resulted in a broadening of the stated missions of the IGS specifying our ‘long-term commitment to provide the highest quality global navigation satellite systems data and products’, reflecting IGS inclusion of GLONASS and future GNSS, such as Galileo into the IGS GPS infrastructures. Much discussion centered on consideration of the establishment of the IGS as an ‘official’ international entity, the benefits of such action and how this could improve the ability of the IGS to conduct its tasks. Recommitment to IGS participation is envisioned and strategies for stabilizing and acquiring agency sponsorships will be explored. Two key strategies identified by the board include that the IGS affirm to: · Continuously provide users with the highest quality, reliable data and products, in a readily accessible manner, · Achieve worldwide acceptance of IGS products as the ‘world standard’ for data and products. These both address the vital interest in keeping the IGS on the leading edge of this technology and encouraging broader recognition and use of the IGS data products. This is especially important with regards to the global reference systems and the utility of GPS and GLONASS to provide access to the ITRF. Of course many other issues and considerations were addressed in addition to these. The detailed plan will be will be made available in the next few months. IGS GB Business Meeting Summary On Dec 14, following the two days of strategy meetings, the GB met for its 15th official meeting. The agenda began with a wrap-up of the two-day strategy session, defining the schedule for completing the documents as described above. A pivotal event this past year was the decision by Tim Springer to resign his position as AC Coordinator. Tim was able to attend the GB meeting and provided an excellent report on the state of IGS products. He was presented with the IGS certificate of appreciation, noting his long involvement and commitment to the IGS since pre-IGS days! The IGS is most fortunate that Prof. Beutler and his staff at the University of Bern were able to provide an excellent candidate as Tim’s replacement, Prof. Robert Weber. The analysis center representatives and the GB unanimously accepted Robert. This demonstrates Bern’s remarkable commitment to complete the next two years of the ACC term. Many thanks again to AIUB for this perfect solution. Robert, in his new position, was also welcomed to the Governing Board and will represent the IGS on analysis issues. Tim was congratulated on his new position with wishes for success being expressed by the board. The issues of data centers for the IGS was also discussed at length noting the increased pressure on the data flow and access as a result of IGS sub-daily ‘Ultra’ products and moving closer to real-time processes. It was agreed that a solution must be found to ensure back-up capabilities and provide more efficient and timely access by the ACs to network data. Carey Noll agreed to work with the ACC and the CB to redefine data center requirements and processes. The IGS components and the GB will review this in 2001 in anticipation of acquiring additional data centers and realizing enhancements at our existing DCs. The remainder of the time was devoted to the IGS working groups and pilot projects. The current projects of the IGS are: IGS/BIPM precise time and frequency project (Jim Ray/USNO and Felicitas Arias/BIPM, co-chairs), LEO pilot project (Mike Watkins/JPL, Chair), Ionosphere WG (Joachim Feltens/ESOC, chair), Atmospheric WG (Gerd Gendt/GFZ, chair), Reference Frame WG (Remi Ferland/NRCan, chair), International GLONASAS Service Pilot Project – IGLOS PP (Jim Slater/NIMA, Chair). According to IGS policy, each WG must be reviewed every two years to determine status of the WG, and continuance or dissolution of the activity. The IGS/BIPM timing project had been extended through 2001 previously, and the IGLOS-PP was approved at the June meeting of the GB. All groups provided an update, and it was decided for the continuance of the WGs, with additional technical and organizational details to be considered at the next GB meetings. The progress of these groups are contained in the annual and Technical Report series of the IGS, and contained generally in the IGS Report series or via the IGS website. Very soon the organizational meeting of the IGS LEO Project will take place on Feb 6-8 at GFZ Potsdam, for more information see: http://op.gfz-potsdam.de/D1/LEOW/LEOW_index.html The Central Bureau noted that due to budgetary challenges, the finalization of the 1999 report series had been delayed since mid-summer, but should be completed very soon, with electronic versions becoming available first. Mike Bevis and myself discussed the formalization of a WG on sea level monitoring with continuous GPS measurements at tide gauges and tide gauge benchmarks. This has been a ‘seed’ initiative of the IGS since the joint PSMSL/IGS workshop on Sea Level (see the proceedings at the IGS website: GPS and Tide Gauge Benchmark Monitoring & GPS Altimeter Calibration.) A proposal will be prepared for the next meeting of the IGS GB. Mike is the responsible chair for the IAPSO Commission on Mean Sea Level and Tides and has established a website to further discussion of this activity: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/cgps_tg. The Sea Level Change Project SEAL, carried out by a number of German research institutions (GFZ, GKSS, AWI) will put a concerted effort into GPS monitoring of global tide gauges. An introduction to the complete program can be found at http://op.gfz-potsdam.de/seal/. It was also recommended at the meeting that two additional committees be formed, reinstatement of the Infrastructure Committee and creation of a new IGS Real Time WG. This year also marks new elections to the GB. A nominations committee will be established at the next GB meeting in March. The IGS Associate Membership will be finalized by May and IGS Associates - the electing body of the GB members - will be contacted between June and early August for the election process. The schedule is to obtain final approval of new or re-elected members during the IGS GB meeting at the IAG Scientific Assembly in Budapest September 2-8. The terms expiring are for the positions Network Representative held by Bjorn Engen; Data Center Representative by Carey Noll, and Analysis Center Representative by Geoff Blewitt. The next meeting of the GB is scheduled for March 25, 2001 in Nice, France, during the 26th General Assembly of the EGS. One further note, it was decided to plan the next IGS workshop based on a theme as opposed to having separate analysis and network workshops. This is tentatively planned for early in 2002. Proceedings from the Network Workshop in Oslo this past July and the Analysis Center Workshop at USNO in September will be published and be available this spring. The Network workshop proceedings will be published by Elsevier in the peer reviewed journal publication ‘Physics and Chemistry of the Earth’; and the AC workshop proceedings will be published by the GPS Solutions journal. Wishing you a very happy and prosperous New Year, Regards, Christoph Reigber IGS GB: Christoph Reigber/Chair Gerhard Beutler/Appointed (IAG) Mike Bevis/Appointed (IGS) Geoff Blewitt/Analysis Center Representative Claude Boucher/IERS Representative to IGS Carine Bruyninx/IGS Representative to the IERS John Dow/Network Representative Bjorn Engen/Network Representative Joachim Feltens/Ionosphere Working Group Chair Remi Ferland/IGS Reference Frame Coordinator Gerd Gendt/Troposphere Working Group Chair Tom Herring/IAG Representative John Manning /Appointed (IGS) Ruth Neilan/Director of IGS Central Bureau Carey Noll/Data Center Representative Paul Paquet/FAGS Representative Jim Ray/Precise Time Transfer Project, Chair Markus Rothacher/Analysis Representative Robert Serafin/Appointed (IGS) Jim Slater/GLONASS Pilot Project, Chair Robert Weber/Analysis Center Coordinator Michael Watkins/LEO Working Group, Chair Jim Zumberge/Analysis Representative Angelyn Moore/Secretariat -- Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Christoph Reigber GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ) Division 1: Kinematics & Dynamics of the Earth Telegrafenberg A 17, D-14473 Potsdam, Germany phone: +49 (0)331 288-1100, -1101 (secr.) fax: +49 (0)331 288-1111 e-mail: reigber@gfz-potsdam.de www: http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/