[IGSMAIL-5291]: Summary of 27th IGS Governing Board Meeting, Dec. 2005

[John.Dow at esa.int]

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IGS Electronic Mail      19 Jan 08:29:42 PST 2006      Message Number 5291
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Author: John M. Dow
Subject: Summary of 27th IGS Governing Board Meeting, Dec. 2005

Dear Colleagues,

The 27th Meeting of the IGS Governing Board (GB) took place on Sunday 4
December in San Francisco. I would like to summarise the main topics
discussed and some of the conclusions reached.

The year 2005  had a number of significant milestones for the IGS:

   Finalisation and approval by the GB took place in March 2005 of the new
   Terms of Reference (ToR, see
   http://igscb.jpl.nasa.gov/organization/bylaws.html). The changes were
   summarised in IGSMail-5119, and brought the ToR up-to-date with respect to
   several developments which had taken place over the last years. We note in
   particular the change of name to "International GNSS Service IGS" to
   reflect broader interests of the IGS; the formalisation of the IGS
   Executive Committee (which was established in January 2003 and charged
   with moving ahead strategic and other issues between Board meetings); some
   changes to representation on the Board; new Policy Statements for Analysis
   Centres, Data Centres, Working Groups and Pilot Projects.

   A "Focus Area Review" was held at the Technical University Vienna in April
   2005 on the day preceeding the 26th GB Meeting. This was a mini-workshop
   which concentrated on issues being developed by the GNSS WG, the LEO WG
   and the Real-Time WG (reflecting the three key areas highlighted in the
   IGS Strategic Plan 2002-2007), as well as the topical issue of antenna
   phase centre modelling.

   The IGS was present at the IUGG Assembly in Cairns, Australia in August
   2005: an Executive Committee meeting was held, and a paper on IGS status
   was presented. The Cairns meeting was dominated by the formal
   establishment of GGOS, the Global Geodetic Observing System. The new GGOS
   Chair and one of the two Deputies (Markus Rothacher and Ruth Neilan,
   resp.) are IGS Board members.

Significant items dealt with by the GB in December were:

   The results of the elections for three positions in the GB were reported
   and confirmed by the GB. The members elected by the IGS Associates for the
   term 2006-2009 are:

Urs Hugentobler (Univ. of Bern, Switzerland; Analysis Representative)
Norman Beck (Natural Resources Canada; Network Representative)
Carey Noll (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Centre; Data Centre Representative)

The current incumbents of the Network and Data Centre positions were thus
re-elected. The current incumbent of the AC position (Peng Fang, SIO) had
decided not to stand for election.

The Board thanked the Election Committee (Chris Rizos, Jim Zumberge and
Markus Rothacher) for their effective work in organising the elections with
the support of the IGS Central Bureau, and all candidates for their
willingness to participate in the elections.

Following a proposal by the Central Bureau (as foreseen in the ToR), two new
Appointed Members  were unanimously invited by the Board to join the GB for
the period 2006-2009: these are Dr. Bill Kuo, atmospheric scientist and
Director of the COSMIC Project at UCAR, Boulder CO, and Richard Wannacott,
Director of Survey Service of the South African Department of Land Affairs.
Bill Kuo has since confirmed acceptance, while Richard Wannacott is expecting
internal approval in the near future.

It was noted that the positions of Analysis Centre Cordinator and Board Chair
become vacant at the end of 2006 and that consideration of possible
successors is needed in good time. GFZ may be able to offer a continuation of
Gerd Gendt as ACC.

   The next IGS Workshop will take place at ESA/ESOC, Darmstadt in the week
   8-12 May 2006, with main themes including the IGS role in GGOS and in new
   GNSS developments, and the IGS vision for the future (see IGSMail-5259).
   A Scientific Organising Committee is being formed under the chairmanship
   of the Analysis Centre Coordinator (Gerd Gendt). Proposals for sessions
   are being gathered and the programme outline will be announced shortly.

   A Strategic Planning retreat is envisaged for Autumn 2006 and strategic
   planning issues will be addressed in the Darmstadt workshop in preparation
   for this.

   A Call for Participation in a Real-Time Pilot Project will be developed by
   the Real Time Working Group. The timescale foreseen is issue in Spring
   2006 and start of the Pilot Project by June 2006.

   It was decided (following a proposal by the IGLOS PP Chair, Jim Slater) to
   discontinue the Glonass Pilot Project, since it was considered to be
   adequately integrated into the mainstream IGS data flow and processing
   cycle. This can be considered to be a major step foward and promises well
   for the integration of other GNSS in the future. IGS Glonass concerns will
   be handled in future by the GNSS WG (Chair: Robert Weber).

   The GB noted that the new Global Data Centre operated in test mode by the
   Korean Astronomy and Science Institute (KASI) since January 2005
   demonstrated a degree of maturity that would allow it to participate fully
   in the IGS operations. The Board unanimously welcomed KASI as the fourth
   IGS GDC and first new GDC since the initial establishment of the IGS, and
   thanked Dr. James Park and his colleagues for the excellent support being
   provided by KASI.

   The Board Chair and CB Director both attended a series of meetings over
   the past year at the United Nations in Vienna concerned with the
   establishment of an "International Committee on GNSS", whose members would
   be governments operating Global Navigation Satellite Systems and
   Non-Government Organisations representing significant user communities. A
   meeting to formally establish the ICG was held at the UN in Vienna under
   the auspices of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UN OOSA) on 1 and 2
   December 2005 immediately preceeding the 27th GB Meeting. Despite some
   late difficulties for two of the GNSS providers (Russia and China), who
   will continue to work with the ICG and probably join later, the ICG was
   established at a late hour on Friday 2 December. The IGS is expected to
   become a full member of ICG, following formal approval by the IGS GB. The
   IAG, FIG, BIPM, COSPAR are among other NGO's which are expected to become
   members or observers. The US State Department, the European Commission and
   the European Space Agency all indicated that they will become members of
   the ICG.

   A streamlined approach to handling the incorporation of new stations in
   the IGS network was proposed by the Network Coordinator (Angie Moore) and
   adopted by the Board. Details will be made available of the IGS website.

   Good progress is being made now on the AFREF project, which is receiving a
   lot of support from the IGS and IAG. Our new GB member Richard Wannacott
   (member of the AFREF Steering Committee, as is Ruth Neilan) will help to
   strengthen this link between IGS and AFREF.

A reception was held following the GB meeting, with invitations to other IAG
Services, to honour IGS Governing Board members leaving the Board, notably
Bob Serafin and Chris Reigber (former Chair).

Please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail or give me a call if you wish
some further clarification on any of these issues, or others which you feel
may need the attention of the IGS Governing Board.

I would like to thank again the many individuals and institutions who
continue to support the work of the IGS.

Wishing you all a healthy and successful New Year 2006.

Yours sincerely,
John M. Dow
Chair, IGS Governing Board