Subject: [IGSMAIL-359] IGS Status Report
From: BEUTLER
Date: 29 OCT 1993 18:14:22

IGS Electronic Mail       29-OCT-1993 18:14:22       Message Number 359
***********************************************************************

From:	BEUTLER
Subj:	IGS Status Report
-------------------------

IGS STATUS REPORT  OCTOBER 1993 :
Workshops in Ottawa and Washington, First Governing Board Meeting
_________________________________________________________________

Three major IGS events took place in October 1993: the Analysis Centers
Workshop in Ottawa (October 12-14), the Data Center Workshop in Silver
Springs (October 18 - 20, near Washington D.C), and the first Governing
Board Meeting in Silver Springs (18 October 1993).

The Ottawa Analysis Centers Workshop ( 12-14 October)
-----------------------------------------------------

The workshop was hosted by Energy Mines and Resources (EMR) Canada.  The
excellent organization and good atmosphere were very much appreciated by
the about 30 participants of the workshop.  Jan Kouba, Joe Popelar, and
Dave Boal really did a great job. The focus was on three topics, namely
(1) processing standards, formats, reports, (2) orbit combination, and
(3) integration of regional clusters and distributed processing.  Each
topic was introduced through a position paper, J. Zumberge and C. Goad
were responsible for topic (1), G.  Beutler, J.  Kouba, and T. Springer
for topic (2), G.  Blewitt, G. Gent, and Y. Bock for topic (3).  The
position papers together with the conclusions and recommendations of the
workshop will be distributed in the form of proceedings later on this
year.  Let us therefore only mention two facts:  It was decided that the
analysis center coordinator of IGS will start producing combined orbits
(including the daily *.eph files) of all IGS analysis centers as soon as
possible using the principles developed in the mentioned position paper.
It was then recognized that, in view of the growing number of permanent
receivers, regional and distributed processing will become a very
important issue in future.  This aspect will certainly be of great
interest to a broad scientific community.

The Networks Workshop in Silver Springs (18-20 October)
-------------------------------------------------------

This workshop was hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) and held in the new NOAA facilities in Silver
Springs, Maryland.  Gerry Mader and Miranda Chin were the principal
responsibles for the workshop and their efforts were certainly
appreciated by everyone.  The main areas of concentration for this
workshop were network operations, station specific operations,and data
formatting and handling.  A key activity was to assess and evaluate the
data flow of the network and detail more efficient methods to prepare
for the permanent operation phase beginning January 1994.  Effort was
made to complete the station reports for all stations, especially those
requested by the Analysis Centers.  Future IGS stations will be assigned
to specific data center(s) only after the station reports have been
submitted to the Central Bureau.  The date for compliance to the RINEX 2
standard was set at December 1, or as soon as possible. The detailed
summary will be distributed in the near future that outlines all of the
recommendations and decisions.

The Governing Board Meeting (18 October 1993)
---------------------------------------------

This first meeting of the Governing Board of IGS took place in the
Holiday Inn in Silver Spring MD.  Two sessions, an executive session
(only attended by the already elected Governing Board members), and a
regular session.  In the executive session the first agenda item was the
election of the chairperson.  It turned out that the GB chairman is the
same as the (old) oversight committee chairman.  Then the changes in the
terms of reference suggested by IAG (appointment of 5 additional members
to the GB) were formally approved. Immediately thereafter the terms of
reference underwent a next infinitesimal change by making the IGS
representative to IERS an appointed Governing Board member too. Bill
Melbourne was then appointed as the IGS representative to the IERS. In a
next step Jan Kouba was elected as the IERS analysis center coordinator.
The last agenda item of the executive session was the appointment of the
additional GB members as recommended by the Central Bureau (CB). The
representatives on IGS Governing Board (in alphabetic order) is as
follows:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
                  Governing Board of IGS
Name           Country   Functions                     Initial Term
-------------------------------------------------------------------
G. Beutler    Switzerland  Chair                          4 years
Y. Bock       USA          analsysis center rep.          2 years
C. Boucher    France       ITRF                           2 years
J. Dow,       Germany      network rep                    2 years
B. Engen      Norway       network rep                    4 years
M. Feissel    France       IERS                           4 years
T. Kato       Japan        network rep.                   2 years
J. Kouba      Canada       Analysis Center Coordinator    2 years
G. Mader      USA          network                        2 years
B. Melbourne  USA          IGS rep to IERS                4 years
I. Mueller    USA          IAG rep.                       4 years
R. Neilan     USA          Director of Central Bureau
C. Noll,      USA          data center rep.               4 years
Ch. Reigber   Germany      analysis center rep.           2 years
B. Schutz     USA          Pres. CSTG SubCommission (IAG) 4 years
-------------------------------------------------------------------

The regular session was attended by about 25 persons. Detailed minutes
will be distributed through a Newsletter in the near future. Therefore
we only mention a few topics. It was recognized so far a lot of work was
done "internally" within IGS, but that now, with the establishment of
the official service, more emphasis has to be put on publicity. Ivan
Mueller will help the Central Bureau coordinate these efforts. I.
Mueller, G. Blewitt and Y. Bock are the nucleus of a committee trying to
coordinate regional GPS efforts. We hope that one of the results will be
(at last) a definition of the first densification of the IGS network.
It was also felt that not enough credit was given in past to the network
responsibles and to the observers. An attempt will be made to improve
this situation in future. Last but not least it was decided that the
next (the second) Governing Board Meeting should take place at the
combined IGS/IERS workshop to be organized by the Observatoire de Paris,
the Institut Geographique National, and by the Centre National d'Etudes
Spatiales in France (21-25 March, 1994). The first circular for this
meeting will be distributed in the near future.   An informal business
meeting of the GB members present at the AGU Fall Meeting will take
place in San Francisco in December, 1993.

Gerhard Beutler                                       Ruth E. Neilan
Chairman,                                             Director,
IGS Governing Board                                   Central Bureau