[IGSMAIL-6514] Short Summary of the 39th IGS Governing Board Meeting

[Urs Hugentobler]

Dear Colleagues,

More than one month after the 39th IGS Governing Board Meeting in San 
Francisco it is really high time to inform you about the important 
topics and discussions covered at our 7 hours meeting. The meeting took 
place on Dec 4, 2011, with 19 GB Members and 11 Invitees attending. With 
the presence of 12 voting members a quorum was reached.

* Elections

One of the important tasks was the approval of the outcome of the 
elections. Five highly qualified candidates were standing for the two 
open assignments as Analysis Center Representatives as the terms of Bob 
King and Tim Springer terminate by end of last year. 63% out of 183 IGS 
Associate members participated in the vote and elected Shailen Desai 
from Jet Propulsion Laboratory and reelected Tim Springer from European 
Space Operations Center for the term 2012-2015 as voting members of our 
Governing Board.

The Board unanimously approved the result of the elections. I 
congratulate Shailen and Tim and welcome Shailen in our Board and am 
glad that Tim continues his involvement. I also want to thank the three 
not elected candidates for their willingness to stand for elections and 
allowed for a (difficult) selection from five highly qualified and very 
appropriate candidates. The IGS is fortunate to have highly qualified 
and engaged individuals who contribute to our Service and are ready to 
serve in the Governing Board. Only such engagement allows the IGS to 
keep its leading role in the evolving GNSS landscape.

I also want to thank the Election Committee, composed of Carine 
Bruyninx, Carey Noll and chaired by Richard Wonnacott for their very 
careful and efficient conduction of the elections.

* Changes in the Governing Board

Apart from Shailen joining the Governing Board there were more changes 
in the Board membership. Yamin Dang joined the Board in the course of 
last year as appointed member, Zuheir Altamimi joined as IAG 
representative and Christine Hackman joined as new chair of the 
Troposphere Working Group. Jake Griffith joined the Board beginning of 
this year as new Analysis Center Coordinator, see separate IGS Mail 
6513. Chris Rizos was an appointed member, he is now member of the GB in 
his function as IAG President.

As a matter of fact several members left the Governing Board, namely Bob 
King, Geoff Blewitt, Yoaz-Bar Sever, Jim Ray, John Dow, and Gerhard 
Beutler. The work, efforts and expertise they contributed to the IGS in 
their different functions and as members of the Board over many years 
was honored at the GGOS reception after the GB meeting. See also 
dedicated separate IGS Mail.

The Associates Members Committee will continue its work with a new 
composition: The members of the new Committee are Tim Springer (chair), 
Christine Hackman, and James Park. IGS representatives to IERS are Tim 
Springer (analysis) and Steve Fisher (network). With Bruno Garayt and 
Paul Rebischung the IGS is well represented in the IAG Sub-Commission 
1-2 on reference frames. Ruth Neilan and I represent the IGS in the GGOS 
Consortium.

* Strategic Plan

In the course of this year the Strategic Plan 2013-2017 has to be 
developed. As the current Strategic Plan is not outdated in most of its 
content, an update is envisaged. The new plan will have to properly 
address the IGS leadership in the changing GNSS landscape. Key issue is 
the IGS' path from GPS to GNSS involving all components from acquisition 
to analysis. The details of the update process will be defined in the 
first months of this year. A web questionnaire is being prepared in 
order to collect the IGS community's perspective of the three main goals 
the IGS shall achieve and three main challenges the IGS is facing.

The Strategic Implementation Plan was updated for 2012 before the 
meeting and discussed during the meeting. The Plan in fact contains 
actions at different level of abstraction. Some actions can (and should) 
be associated with target dates for which a successful completion is 
planned while other actions may rather be considered as continuous 
activity. The next Implementation Plan shall be restructured in order to 
accommodate timelines. Also the feedback and monitoring process has room 
for improvements. As an example the recommendations of the upcoming 
workshop should be directly reflected in the Strategic Implementation 
Plan 2013. Since the GB meeting I received feedback from the working 
groups on actions related to their focus areas and an updated version of 
the Strategic Implementation Plan 2012 will be circulated in the GB for 
approval.

* Multi-GNSS

The GNSS landscape is changing rapidly. New frequencies and modernized 
signals are already in space and more are coming soon. Equipment 
tracking the new frequencies and signals is getting commercially 
available. The transition to a truly Multi-GNSS Service is the biggest 
challenge the IGS is facing. The transition of the current GPS and 
GPS/GLONASS tracking network to a Multi-GNSS network has to be planned 
carefully in order not to disrupt the long time series required for 
realizing the reference frame. New signals need characterization for 
global applications, biases need calibration, conventions concerning new 
signals need to be established, new formats are required, new equipment 
needs calibration, analysis software needs upgrade. New IGS products 
will eventually be defined.

To facilitate the process the IGS M-GEX Call for Proposal was issued 
with the goal to make tracking data from the new systems available for 
engineering analysis of the signals, characterization of the equipment, 
adaptation of software packages, and eventually to generate experimental 
products. About two dozen proposals from interested institutions were 
received the IGS and are currently under evaluation and I thank all who 
sent a proposal. Interfacing with the JAXA MGM Network was discussed 
offline with Satoshi Kogure after the meeting. Paul Rebischung presented 
the global REGINA GNSS tracking network planned by Centre National 
d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) whose data will be available for the IGS. I 
look forward for a successful tracking campaign and for the first 
results that will be presented at the IGS Workshop.

In the course of the GB meeting the revised charter of the GNSS Working 
Group was approved by the voting members. The most important task of the 
WG is the conduction and monitoring of the M-GEX Campaing.

* IGS Workshop 2012*
*

**Shailen Desai, the Chair of the Scientific Organizing Committee 
presented the already well developed draft program of the workshop that 
will take place on July 23-27 in Olsztyn, Poland. The program committee 
strives to balance programmatic overview presentations and technical 
presentations. Enough room will be allocated to poster sessions that 
will be dedicated to IGS focus areas, as well as for splinter meetings 
of the Working Groups.

Andrzej Krankowski presented the very nice facilities that will be 
available at his university for our workshop. The workshop will be an 
ideal opportunity for exchange and discussion between the IGS components 
as well as the users of IGS products. I look forward to this opportunity.*
*

*** IGS Analysis and Products

Most important information is the transition of the ACC function from 
Jim Ray to Jake Griffiths beginning of this year, see IGS Mail 6513. NGS 
committed to continue its involvement for another term of four years, 
allocating significant resources to the ACC function. In order to 
express the IGS' deep gratitude, Ruth Neilan, Gerhard Beutler and I 
visited NGS on November 8.

Separated from the ACC function is the development of a new and 
multi-GNSS-capable orbit combination software. Rolf Dach reported on the 
status and plans of the developments jointly performed by CODE, ESOC, 
and TU Vienna. Funding is essentially confirmed and first manpower is 
allocated. Details on architecture shall be presented at the IGS Workshop.

* Real-Time, RINEX and RTCM

At the meeting in December 2010 the IGS GB decided the transition of the 
Real-Time Pilot Project into a Working Group within two years. The GB 
considers global real-time GNSS satellite clocks and orbits as future 
IGS core products. This is noted as an integral part of the IGS 
Strategic Plan 2008-2012. The current status of the project shows a 
stable generation of combined GNSS satellite clocks. Real-time IGS 
products may thus be expected as early as this summer. Work has still to 
be done to define the products, procedures and access points in detail 
and to perform final product reliability tests.

Concerning the maintenance of RINEX into the multi-GNSS future the IGS 
underlines its claim for the leading role. RINEX is of pivotal 
importance for the IGS and for post processing applications. An 
invitation by RTCM Special Committee 104 to form a joint IGS/RTCM 
working group, chaired by IGS, was accepted at the April GB meeting. A 
joint activity with RTCM enhances the capabilities for promoting the 
format. The charter is under development. A RINEX 3 adoption plan was 
presented at the GB meeting by the working group and discussed. 
Additional discussion is needed to finalize the plans. Target date is 
the IGS Workshop.

* Tropopshere WG*
*

**Christine Hackman, the new Chair of the Troposphere WG gave a short 
update of the WG status. The transition of product transition from JPL 
to USNO took place in summer and after detailed tests of the quality of 
the results the production of the IGS troposphere products switched to 
USNO beginning of July 2011. The restructuring of the WG is well under 
way, engaging also the users of the products. The GB voted positively on 
the draft charter and membership list.*
*

*** Infrastructure

Significant work was invested by the IGS Infrastructure Committee and CB 
into the revision of the IGS Site Guidelines that will soon be available 
on the IGS web site. The new Site Guidelines implicitly allow 
application networks. The mechanism for simplifying the inclusion of 
networks from GNSS operators into the IGS analysis for reference frame 
alignment according to an ICG WG-D recommendation was discussed during 
and after the GB meeting with Barbara Wiley from NGA.


After this short, incomplete and late report I finally like to sincerely 
thank all participants and supporters of the IGS for their efforts and 
for all that was achieved in the past year. I wish you - and the IGS - 
all the best and a successful and prosperous 2012!

With best regards
Urs Hugentobler
Chair, IGS Governing Board




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