[IGSMAIL-5298]: IERS Workshop on Global Geophysical Fluids: First Announcement

[IERS Central Bureau]

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IGS Electronic Mail      02 Feb 03:54:37 PST 2006      Message Number 5298
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Author: Tonie van Dam and Bernd Richter

IERS Workshop on Global Geophysical Fluids: First Announcement


                        FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
                          IERS WORKSHOP
                               on
                       COMBINATION RESEARCH
                               and
                     GLOBAL GEOPHYSICAL FLUIDS


The main goal of the workshop will be the improvement of IERS Global
Geophysical Fluid Centre (GGFC) products in accuracy, consistency,
stability, timeliness, user-friendly access, and documentation, to
contribute significantly to the "Global Geodetic Observation System"
(GGOS).

The workshop will be held at the Parc Belle Vue Hotel in Luxembourg
City, Luxembourg, October 5 - 6, 2006.

The GGFC Special Bureau's (SBs) have the responsibility of supporting,
facilitating, and providing services to the scientific research
community, the IAG services and common users, in areas related to the
variations in Earth rotation, gravity field, geocenter, and surface
deformations that are caused by mass transport in the
atmosphere-hydrosphere-solid Earth-core system, or the global
geophysical fluids.

The rapidly increasing precision of space-geodetic observation
techniques allows us to measure displacements of the Earth surface
resulting from surface loads on finer spatial and temporal scales. These
observations offer an opportunity for validating the geophysical surface
mass models (ocean tides, the atmsophere, groundwater, non-tidal oceans)
driving the deformations.  On the other hand, to improve the results of
space geodetic analyses, increasingly complex geophysical models of
station motion are required (as emphasised, e.g., in the IERS
Conventions).

To maximize our ability to interpret the geodetic observations, the IERS
conventions and standards for modelling, parameterisation and analysis
strategies will have to be reviewed. In view of the requirements of the
new satellite missions and the demanding questions concerning global
change and the interaction of the Earth's System, the products of the
GGFC, their accuracy and consistency become more and more important.

The computed quantities, algorithm and data formats need to be
standardized and results are documented, archived and made available to
the public on dedicated individual SB websites or the IERS Data- and
Information System.

The workshop will take an insightful review where we are and will
generate a plan for where we should be in the near future, while further
define the roles and responsibilities of the GGFC in serving the
community.

A two-day workshop is planned. After technical reports which review the
current status and which propose plans for the future from each of the
eight Special Bureaus (Atmosphere, Oceans, Hydrology, Tides, Mantle,
Core, Gravity/Geocenter, Loading) a technical forum of individuals
including SB members/associates and anyone from community will discuss
scientific contributions, viewpoints, concerns and issues.

For each of the major topics (sessions) a position paper will be written
by the session conveners and made available before the workshop. It will
contain the present status, the future requirements, and recommendations
and schedules on how to realize the envisaged goals.

A follow-up second announcement with a more detailed program and
registration forms will be released in May / June 2006.


With kind regards

Tonie van Dam, Head of IERS Global Geophysical Fluids Centre
Bernd Richter, Director of IERS Central Bureau