Minutes of the Third Meeting of the "IAG Committee for the Realization of the New IAG Structure" April 26, 2002 9h:00m - 12h45m Hotel "Novotel, Nice Centre" Garibaldi Room Attendees: Gerd Boedecker Alan Dodson Ruth Neilan C.K. Shum Fernando Sanso Klaus-Peter Schwarz Christian Tscherning Clark Wilson Peilinag Xu Guest: Erwin Groten Agenda: ------ 1. Present Status and Timetable 2. Proposal by E. Groten/E. Grafarend for the creation of an ICC on Geodetic Standards 3. Reports by the four Commission Task Leaders 4. The Inter-Commission Committee on Theory: State of Work, Report by Peilinag Xu 5. State of Planning Committee for IGGOS: Report by Gerhard Beutler 6. Outreach Branch and Central Bureau Issues: Report by Christian Tscherning 7. Time and Place of Next Meeting 8. Any other Business Written reports received from: - E. Groten (Geodetic Standards) - M. Sideris (Commission 2: Gravity Field) - P. Xu (ICC on Theory) - Ch. Tscherning (Outreach Branch) - C. Boucher, H. Drewes, C. Boucher (Considerations concerning Commission 1) These reports (resp. the modifications thereof after the meeting) are attached to these minutes. The oral presentations of the task leaders are also available as attachments. 1. Present Status and Timetable ============================ The undersigned stated that "the main purpose of this third meeting of the "IAG Committee for the Realization of the New IAG Structure" is to get an overview of the state of the Realization Process and to define the Timetable for the final definition of the initial Commission Structure. The tasks were defined in the minutes of the Second Meeting of the IAG Committee for the Realization of the New IAG Structure of December 11, 2001. The five Section presidents agreed to serve as task leaders for the creation of the four new commissions and the intercommission committee on theory. The timetable of the IAG restructuring process has to observe the timetable for the nominations and elections for the period 2003-2007 (Klaus-Peter Schwarz). As only the IAG President, the Vice-President, the Secretary General, the Commission Presidents, three Service representatives, and the C&O Branch Presidents have to be elected by the Council, it seemed at first sight that there is no pressure to have the Commission- and ICC-internal new structure available when sending out the nominations in Summer/Fall this year. The discussion made it clear, however, that the new nomination procedure will ask for more time to appoint the Commission Vice-Presidents after the election of the new officers. Therefore, Klaus-Peter Schwarz proposed in the subsequent meeting of the Executive Committee to modify the nomination procedure in order to have names of the new Commission presidents available at the time of the Executive Committee meeting in Nice (April 2003). The April 2003 IAG EC Meeting and the time between this meeting and the IUGG General Assembly in Sapporo may then be used to define the Commission- & ICC-internal structure. 2. ICC on Geodetic Standards ========================= Prof. Erwin Groten from Darmstadt, Germany was invited to present his views on what he called a "Bureau of Geodetic Standards". He convinced the IAG Committee for the Realization of the New IAG Structure of the necessity of a well visible entity dealing with geodetic standards within the new IAG structure. According to his presentation the new entity should "present every four years at the occasion of the IAG/IUGG General Assembly a catalogue of best estimated Fundamental Geodetic Parameters and of Standards how to reduce geodetic observations, namely from Global Earth Observing Systems (GEOS)". After having agreed on the necessity of such an entity (essentially an upgraded version of the now existing Special Commission 3 on Fundamental Parameters in Section 5) the discussion focused on the nature of the new entity. The following options were mentioned in particular: - Subcommission in one of the Commissions (or the new ICC on Theory) - a new Inter-Commission Committee The new IAG ByLaws state that "INTER-COMMISSION COMMITTEES shall handle well defined, important and permanent tasks involving all commissions". Eventually, the commission found that this definition is in close agreement with the requirements of the new structure item and decided to propose to the IAG Executive Committee to create a planning group for the establishment of an Inter-Commission Committee on Geodetic Standards. It was moreover recommended, that the planing group should be chaired by the current Section V and that the Services should be asked to delegate members into this planning group. It was also stated clearly, that the products of this ICC should be published in the IERS Conventions. Note: The IAG EC actually asked Clark Wilson, president of Section V to chair this planning group and to create it with prominent representation from the services, in particular from the IERS, the IGS, IVS, ILRS, and the gravity-related services. 3. Reports from the Commission Task Leaders ======================================== 3.1 Commission 1: Reference Frames (D.K. Shum, A. Dodson) ***************************************************** The new Commission 1 may be viewed as the successor of part of Section 1 and the entire Section II: Advanced Space Technology in the current IAG structure. Section II contained "CSTG (Intl. Coordination of of Space Techniques for Geodesy and Geodynamics)". CSTG is also Sub-Commission B-2 of COSPAR. The discussions at the meeting were based on a presentation by C.K. Shum, written statements by C. Rizos, P. Willis, Z. Altamimi, C. Boucher and H. Drewes, and oral contributions by A. Dodson. The discussions at the meeting triggered follow-on discussions of the colleagues mentioned with the undersigned. The attached draft structure is the result of these discussions and shall serve for further discussions. The main conclusions are: - The entire "Commission 1: Reference Frames" (and not one of its sub-entities) shall apply to become a Sub-Commission in COSPAR. - CSTG as such will be considered to be discontinued. Vital functions will be taken over by Subcommissions of Commission 1. The exact handling of CSTG and its association with COSPAR will be discussed further. - Duplication of Work of the Services shall be avoided. - C1 shall, however, assume the coordinating role of CSTG within space geodesy - As the name implies, the Commission shall focus on reference frame issues and offer a home to important regional IAG entities like EUREF, etc. - The sub-commissions shall include - (1) important regional entities, including EUREF, SIRGAS, NAREF(new), East Asia-Pacific, Antarctica (part of SCAR), AFREF, (2) Global Geodetic Datum; (3) Space techniques: with projects including (a) orbit and attitude determination (to be coordinated with IGS Pilot Project), (b) International DORIS Pilot Service, (c) Pilot Altimeter Service, (d) GNSS (to be coordinated with Commission 4, which is proposed to lead the activity), and (e) SAR (to be coordinated with Commission 4, which is proposed to lead the activity). Details may be found in the attached proposal fo commission C1. The Commission has strong links to the IERS, IGS, ILRS, IVS -- which have to be represented in the Commission's steering committee, but also in the proposed SC1.1. 3.2 Commission 2: Gravity Field: M. Sideris *************************************** The discussions were based on a written report by M. Sideris (attached to the minutes), who could unfortunately not attend the meeting. Gerd Boedecker, Secretary of Section III, represented the section and its "opinion making process". According to the report, Commission 2 is derived mainly from Section III with elements of Sections II, IV and V. The discussions related to the Earth Tide Commission (see para 3.3) seem to indicate that the Intl. Earth Tide Commission should be part of Commission 2. The five major thematic areas of Commission 2 shall be: - Gravimetry and gravity networks - Precise Geoid determination - Gravity Field determination for Altimetry - dedicated satellite missions - temporal variation of the gravity field Three Subcommissions are proposed - SC 2.1 on Gravimetry and Gravity Networks - SC 2.2 on Spatial and Temporal Modeling of the Gravity Field - SC 3.3 on Dedicated Gravity Satellite Missions The issue of how to accomodate and name the successor of the "Earth Tide Commission" must be settled by the expert group defining Commission 2. Commission 2 has very strong links to the newly established International Gravity Field Service consisting of BGI, ICET, IGeS-I, IGeS-II, ICGEM. 3.3 Commission 3: Earth Rotation and Geodynamics (C. Wilson) ******************************************************** The new Commission 3 "Earth Rotation and Geodynamics" succeeds Section V Geodynamics of the current structure. Activities NOT proposed to be included in the two subcommissions below are proposed to be assigned as follows: - The present International Earth Tide Commission is proposed to be assigned to new Commission 2; - Activities of the present Fundamental Parameters special commission will be assigned to a new Inter-Commission Committee which will report its results via the IERS Conventions; - The services (IERS, PMSL, ICET, BIPM time division) will acquire representation on a level with Commissions in the Commission executive committee. The new Commission is proposed to have only two Subcommissions, initially: - SC 3.1 on Crustal Deformation - SC 3.2 on Earth Orientation and Global Geophysical Fluids The two subcommissions are briefly described in the attached note by Clark Wilson (received May 3, 2002) 3.4 Commission 4: Positioning and Application (A. Dodson) ***************************************************** Based on Alan Dodson's oral report the new Commission 4 will focus on multi-sensor applications, kinematic positioning, atmosphere propagation, monitoring of local geodynamic applications, etc. The Commission shall have strong links to IAG-external organisations like FIG, ION, and (perhaps) to ISPRS. IAG-internally, the Commission must be linked to the IGS (implying an IGS representation on the Commission's steering committee). Four possible SCs were mentioned: - SC 4.1 on multi-sensor systems - SC 4.2 on dynamic monitoring&analysis of structural and local geodynamic deformation - SC 4.3 on GNSS measurement of the atmosphere - SC 4.4 on Application of satellite & airborne imaging systems (e.g., INSAR, LIDAR) Two commission projects were mentioned: - CP 4.1 on GPS Meteorology, Climate, and Space Weather - CP 4.2 on Real-time monitoring systems Open issues are: where are the terrestrial systems, where are the height system. The further discussions/developments will be based on the attached proposal by A. Dodson. 4. The Inter-Commission Committee on Theory ---------------------------------------- Dr. Peiliang Xu had prepared a written report, which was considerably modified based on discussions before, at, and after the third meeting of the "IAG Committee for the Realization of the New IAG Structure". The modified version of the report is attached to these minutes. It addresses - the mission of the ICC on theory, - the structure of the ICC on theory Structure-wise the proposal makes the distinction between - joint working groups with Commissions (probably rather Sub-Commissions which are also ICC Working Groups) - internal entities (internal working groups) A few concrete proposals are contained in Peiliang Xu's report, which states that "As a conclusion, the Planning Committee feels that the Intercommission Committee on Theory should be fully independent, and should be well represented in the EC, as any other commissions or services. Also it must be emphasized that the structures of the Intercommission Committee on Theory are rather preliminary and need to be further discussed substantially in the near future." The general understanding, when setting up the planning committee for the ICC on Theory, rather was to bring theory much closer to the Commissions' work. Be this as it may: the Commission steering committee has to be set up according to the rules stated in the IAG ByLaws, and the representation in the IAG-EC is already defined in the statutes and by-laws. The future discussion should focus on the actual creation of combined Commission Sub-Commissions and ICC Working Groups aa well as on the concrete internal ICC Working Groups. 5. State of Planning Committee for IGGOS ------------------------------------- A written report (actually copies of the transparencies subsequently shown at the IAG EC Meeting) were available. In view of the advanced time and in view of the fact that the "IAG Committee for the Realization of the New IAG Structure" was always informed by e-mail about the preparatory steps of the "establishment of the Planning Group for IGGOS" the agenda item was short-cut at the meeting. For the sake of completeness the basic steps are repeated here: - The IAG EC is requested to approve the composition of the IPPOS Planning Group (in essence) in the following composition: Chairman: Gerhard Beutler (a) Members related to the realization of the reference frame: Claude Boucher, Hermann Drewes, Markus Rothacher (b) Members related to the gravity field and sea level Rene Forsberg, Reiner Rummel, C.K. Shum (c) Earth Rotation and Geodynamics Veronique Dehant, Suzanna Zerbini, Kosuke Heki (d) Services related to Geometry Mike Pearlman, Chris Reigber, Chopo Ma *) (e) Services related to Gravity and sea level Fernando Sanso, Phil Woodworth (f) Network Wolfgang Schl|ter, John Manning, Norman Beck *) (g) Liaison with related activities Tom Yunck and Ruth Neilan *) Recommended as additional members as additional members by services and IAG EC. Should the IAG EC approve the creation of the IGGOS Planning Group (the approval was given on the same day in the afternoon) the first meeting of the IGGOS Planning Group will take place in Washington on May 27, 2002 from 1 p.m.--7 p.m. The tentativ agenda might read as follows: - What are the main goals of IGGOS (H. Drewes, R. Rummel) - Discussion - Status of the IAG Review (G. Beutler) - Identification of the the key activities/areas of the IGGOS planning group - Schedule of Activities 6. Outreach Branch --------------- Christian Tscherning, summarizing his written report, reminded the Commission that a Call for proposals for the IAG Outreach Branch was sent out on January 2, 2002. Only two proposals were received. For various, but different reasons both proposals did not seem suitable. Christian proposed that the search should continue. This view was shared by the Committee. 7. Time and Place of Next Meeting ------------------------------ It was decided to proceed as follows: - The minutes of the third meeting of the "IAG Committee for the Realization of the New IAG Structure" would be written within (about 10 days) - These minutes contain written reports of the five task leaders (new Commissions, ICC on Theory) - Reactions etc. are collected by G. Beutler. Deadline 17 June 2002. - The discussion between now and June 17 should be as broad as possible - Updated versions of the five documents will be prepared by the task leaders till the end of August - The fourth meeting of the "IAG Committee for the Realization of the New IAG Structure" will be held around November 4 in Munich (attached to an IERS meeting). 8. Any other Business ------------------ At 12.40 the Chair apologized for not having concluded the meeting at the planned time and thanked the IAG Secretary General for the lunch offered subsequently in the restaurant of the NOVOTEL. Respectfully submitted Gerhard Beutler Bern, May, 6, 2002