[IGSMAIL-6320] IGS Governing Board elects new Chair

John.Dow at esa.int John.Dow at esa.int
Thu Dec 16 08:38:16 PST 2010


Author: John M. Dow

Dear Colleagues,

At its 37th Meeting held on 12 December 2010 in San Francisco, the IGS
Governing Board elected Prof. Urs Hugentobler (Technical University of
Munich, Germany) as its Chair, for a four year term starting January  2011.

The election of Dr. Carine Bruyninx (Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels)
by the IGS Associates was unanimously confirmed by the Board. Carine, who had
previously served on the Governing Board some years ago, will be one of two
elected Network Representatives, with a term of four years.

I would like to congratulate both Urs and Carine, and at the same time
sincerely thank the other candidates who made themselves available for the
elections. The IGS is indeed fortunate to be able to draw on such a pool of
expertise and experience.

The Board expressed its thanks and deepest respects to Dr. Weijun Gan (China
Earthquake Administration, Beijing) who leaves the Governing Board after four
years as Member. It likewise thanked Henno Boomkamp (based at ESA/ESOC,
Darmstadt, Germany) for his work in leading the Low Earth Orbiter Working
Group (LEO WG) since 2003.

Among a number of significant issues discussed during the 37th Meeting, the
following are worth highlighting:

   The consolidated 23 page document of "Summary Recommendations" from the
   IGS 2010 Workshop held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK) was approved by the
   Board. The recommendations cover twelve distinct areas of IGS activities.
   A new version of the IGS Terms of Reference (including associated
   charters) was adopted. This reflects in particular a number of changes
   which took place since the last update in March 2005 (among others, the
   mission statement, goals and objectives from the Strategic Plan 2008-2012;
   the new Infrastructure Committee; participation in the Global Geodetic
   Observing System (GGOS) and the International Committee on GNSS (ICG);
   changes to the Analysis Centre responsibilities).
   The status of the "Implementation Plan 2010" was reviewed, and an
   "Implementation Plan 2011", derived from the Strategic Plan 2008-2012, was
   adopted.
   The Workshop Recommendations, the new Terms of Reference and the
   Implementation Plan 2011 will be made available on the IGS website at
   http://igs.org.
   Proposals by the Real-Time Pilot Project and by the Tide Gauge Pilot
   Project (TIGA) to proceed to the next steps in preparation for generation
   of operational products were agreed, following the "Policy for the
   Establishment of Working Groups, Pilot Projects and New Operational
   Products". An updated Charter for Real Time was presented, with five goals
   for the period January 2011 to December 2012, culminating in provision of
   real time products as part of IGS services. The TIGA Pilot Project will
   transition to the provision of operational products of geocentric
   coordinates and time series of vertical motion for a large set of globally
   distributed tide gauges collocated with GNSS stations, in support of
   climate studies. A Call for Participation will be issued in order to
   identify suitable participants having the necessary medium- to long-term
   support from their host institutions.
   The development of the next generation combination software ("ACC2.0")
   remains a high priority item and will be pursued by several cooperating
   institutions. The current host of the Analysis Centre Coordination
   function (NOAA/NGS) is willing to consider extending its support for a
   further four years, from January 2012.
   The work plan of the GNSS Working Group will focus on the intended IGS
   Multi-GNSS Pilot Project. An updated WG Charter and membership list will
   be proposed by the WG Chair by the next GB Meeting, in April 2011.
   In view of the announced withdrawal of the current chair, coordination of
   the PPP troposphere product will be handed over to a new WG chair in April
   2011. WG membership will reflect the user community and those Analysis
   Centres interested in contributing to a combined product.

Following the meeting, a reception was held, to which the IAG (GGOS) services
had been invited. As outgoing Chair of the Governing Board, now completing my
second four year term, I would like to thank all those associated with the
IGS for their continuing support. The IGS remains a remarkable organisation,
with so many talented people from institutions spread all over the world,
working together in an exemplary spirit of cooperation. I hope to
participate, as member of the Board and the Executive Committee, for one more
year as Immediate Past Chair. There is no doubt in my mind that the IGS has
every reason to look forward to a great future. I wish the IGS, the Governing
Board and in particular the new Chair, all success in many exciting new
projects.

Best wishes,
John M. Dow




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