[IGSMAIL-5630]: AGU Session: GGOS: Observing and Interpreting Mass Transport in the Earth System

[Hans-Peter Plag]

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IGS Electronic Mail      17 Aug 08:45:54 PDT 2007      Message Number 5630
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Author: Hans-Peter Plag

Dear Colleagues,

The Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS), which is based on the work
of the IAG Services and other IAG components, has the potential to 
develop into a monitoring system for mass transport in the Earth system, 
with many obvious scientific applications and with relevance for 
societal areas such as water, geohazards, climate change, and weather. 
However, utilizing the full potential of the geodetic tools requires 
considerable scientific and technological development, with integration 
across the three main fields of geodesy, namely Earth's geometry, 
gravity field and rotation being a major challenge. We would like to 
draw your attention to Session G04: "The Global Geodetic Observing 
System: observing and interpreting mass transport in the Earth system" 
at the AGU Fall Meeting, December 10-14, 2007 in San Francisco, which 
will address this aspect of GGOS. The full session description is copied 
below. If you are working on observational, modeling and interpretation 
aspects relevant to the session, we would be pleased to see your 
abstract. Please, note that the deadline for abstract submission is 
September 6, 2007.

Best regards

Hans-Peter Plag
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G04:     The Global Geodetic Observing System: Observing and 
Interpreting Mass Transport in the Earth System

Conveners:

Hans-Peter Plag
Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology and Seismological Laboratory, 
University of Nevada, Reno
Mail Stop 178
Reno, NV, USA  89523
1-775-682-8779
hpplag at unr.edu

Markus Rothacher
GeoForschungZentrum Potsdam
Telegrafenberg A17
Potsdam, DEU  14473
+49-331-288-1101
rothacher at gfz-potsdam.de

Richard Gross
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA, USA  91109
1-818-354-4010
richard.gross at jpl.nasa.gov


The Global Geodetic Observing System: observing and interpreting mass 
transport in the Earth system

Changes in the Earth's shape, gravity field and rotation (the 'three 
pillars of geodesy'), are inherently related to mass transport in the 
fluid envelop of the Earth system and the interior of the solid Earth. 
Traditionally, observations of the three pillars have been interpreted 
independently and inverted for mass changes particularly in the 
hydrosphere. Recently, attempts have been made to interpret observations 
of changes in geometry, gravity field, and rotation simultaneously. 
However, at the accuracy level of 10**(-9) or better, interactions 
between the Earth components (atmosphere, ocean, and solid Earth) as 
well as the three pillars (e.g., coupling of rotation and deformation) 
are relevant and an integrated theory consistent across the three 
pillars is required in order to process the observations, model the 
observed changes, and invert for model parameters describing the mass 
transport.

The conveners invite papers addressing progress towards integrated data 
analysis, modeling and interpretation of observations of the three 
pillars on temporal scales ranging from free oscillations, Earth tides, 
meteorological and climatological processes to glacial loading, and on 
spatial scales from local to global studies. Aspects of particular 
interest are the combined processing of observations (e.g. gravity and 
displacements), improved forward modeling with Earth system models, and 
joint inversion of observations (e.g. displacements and rotation changes).