[IGSMAIL-6635] IGS Workshop 2012 and #40 Governing Board Meeting Summary

[Urs Hugentobler]

Dear Colleagues,

last week we had our IGS Workshop in Olsztyn, Poland, which was a great 
success. The workshop format developed by the Scientific Organizing 
Committee lead by Shailen Desai, JPL, was excellent as it left plenty of 
room for interaction and discussions, and the scientific program found 
the appropriate balance between the different topics that form the foci 
of the IGS today. The workshop took place in the very nice facilities of 
the University of Warmia and Mazury and in a lovely region of Poland. 
The workshop was accompanied by a wide social program, including an ice 
breaker party, conference dinner, city tour, sailing regatta, visit in 
castle, planetarium, and observatory, all week with excellent weather. I 
really want to thank Andrzej Krankowski for inviting us to his 
university and for hosting our workshop.

As the Chair of the IGS I want to express my thanks to Shailen Desai and 
his team for an excellent scientific organization of the workshop and 
the very appropriate workshop format and program they put together. And 
I want to thank Andrzej Kankowski and his team from the Local Organizing 
Committee for the preparation and local organization of the workshop, 
for facilitating our bus travel to and from Olsztyn, and for continuous 
support during the workshop. You all can be very proud of this excellent 
achievement!

Short Workshop Summary

----------------------

The IGS Workshop 2012 took place at the University of Warmia and Mazury 
in Olsztyn, Poland, from 23-27 July. The mornings were devoted to 
plenary sessions with invited presentations focusing on well selected 
topics covering the wide scope of the IGS. Lunch time followed by poster 
sessions allowed much time for discussion and interaction between the 
participants while the splinter sessions in the second half of the 
afternoon allowed the working groups to meet, discuss their 'hot' topics 
and formulate their recommendations.

After the welcome by the deputy rector Prof. Figiel and the Mayor of 
Olsztyn, Dr. Grzymowicz, a review from an insider's view of the 
development of the IGS from its start of operations 20 years ago until 
today was given by Gerhard Beutler, Tim Springer provoked with the 
question whether the IGS is sleeping. During the conference we were able 
to confirm that the IGS is not sleeping at all but is full of life also 
18 years after its formation and attacking the challenges posed by the 
rapidly changing GNSS landscape.

The first scientific session showed the progress of the IGS Multi-GNSS 
Experiment (M-GEX), one of the key projects of the IGS. It was inspiring 
to see the status of the growing network and the number of presentations 
and posters focusing on analysis results incorporating the new data 
types. But it was also evident, that much work is still ahead (see GB 
Meeting Summary below).

Mark Caissy and Georg Weber presented the status of the IGS real-time 
activities, the performance of the real-time products and the technical 
challenges of the IGS key project that will lead to the launch of the 
IGS Real-Time Service later this year (see below) as a service 
supporting precise point positioning at global scales for scientific and 
hazard detection applications.

Despite the excellent quality of the IGS products different authors 
presented bothersome results related to not yet fully understood issues: 
Paul Rebischung showed 'interesting' differences in station time series 
generated by different Analysis Centers; Jim Ray and Jake Griffiths 
demonstrated noticeable rotational instabilities in the IGS orbits; 
Chuck Meertens and Andria Bilich forced us to reflect what GNSS antennas 
really measure. Nacho Romero reminded us that we need to take care of 
our network which forms the basis for all of our work.

Further important topics covered were orbit modeling issues, the IGS 
time scale with improved long term stability, aspects of the next IGS 
reprocessing campaign, generation of ionosphere and troposphere 
products, and application of IGS products for weather forecast, 
generation of the next ITRF, tectonic motion and disaster monitoring, 
and many more. It is impressive always again to see the high quality of 
the IGS products, the efforts undertaken for improving them, and the 
wide field of their applications.

The relevance of the IGS for the geodetic and wider community was 
underlined by representatives from IAG (Chris Rizos), GGOS (Markus 
Rothacher), FIG (Larry Hothem) and ICG (David Turner).

Jointly with the IGS Workshop the meeting of the WG-A "Compatibility and 
Interoperability" of the International Committee on GNSS (ICG) took 
place which was an opportunity for intense interaction and exchange 
between IGS and system providers.

The workshop terminated with the presentation of the recommendations by 
the Working Groups that define actions for the further development of 
the IGS. The recommendations will soon be available at the IGS web site.

The workshop program can be found under 
http://www.uwm.edu.pl/kaig/igs_workshop_2012/, and the presentations and 
posters as well as the recommendations will soon become available at the 
IGS web pages http://igs.org.

Governing Board Meeting Summary

-------------------------------

The IGS Governing Board Meeting took place on Sunday July 22 with a 
wrap-up meeting after the workshop on Friday July 27. Main issues 
discussed are the following:

* Strategic Planning

The update of the IGS Strategic Plan is in preparation and the concept 
was presented by Juan Ceva (CB, by phone). The plan shall include a 
matrix relating objectives with initiatives. This should allow for a 
better monitoring and reporting of the progress achieved. The Strategic 
Plan period will be reduced from five years to four years in order to 
better synchronize with the terms of the GB chair. The plan shall be 
reviewed every two years. Next steps are the issue of a questionnaire to 
stakeholders. The feedback together with the workshop recommendations as 
well as a SWOT analysis shall form the input for the new Strategic Plan 
that shall be ready by the end of the year. Lot of work is still 
waiting, many thanks to the CB for the preparations already done.

* Site Guidelines

The Infrastructure Committee invested much effort in a thorough revision 
of the IGS Site Guidelines. The guidelines were available for public 
review and comments were received. Few comments related to real-time 
data transfer issues remain to be implemented in the next few weeks. The 
GB provisionally approved the Site Guidelines that will be published as 
soon as the remaining edits are implemented.

* Network Coordinator

The GB is glad to assign Robert Khachikyan, CB staff member, full time 
as Network Coordinator. With this one of the very important functions in 
the IGS is again filled.

* M-GEX

The Multi-GNSS Experiment is one of the key projects of the IGS. The GB 
approved the extension of the project until end of 2013 with the goal of 
a transition to a Pilot Project. The experiment is open, everybody who 
wants to contribute is invited to join. More information about goals and 
plans of M-GEX will be issued by a separate IGS Mail shortly. Robert 
Weber stepped down as Chair of the GNSS WG which coordinates M-GEX. The 
GB thanks Robert for his engagement over many years in the WG and GB and 
in particular for bringing M-GEX to live. The GB is very glad that 
Oliver Montenbruck from DLR/GSOC, Germany, is ready to take over this 
role and unanimously approved him as the new GNSS WG Chair and member of 
the GB.

* IGS Real-Time Service

The upcoming IGS Real-Time Service is our second key project. Initial 
Operational Capability of the Service will be available later this year, 
providing real-time GPS orbit and clock corrections. For details see 
http://www.gpsworld.com/gnss-system/augmentation-assistance/innovation-coming-soon-13044andftp://igs.org/pub/resource/pubs/IGS_why_in_RT.pdf. 


There are still several tasks to be finalized before going public with 
the service. The GB nevertheless approved the launch of the Service with 
target date November 2012 and with a monitoring of the progress of the 
preparations through regular EC telecons.

* RINEX

The IGS/RTCM RINEX WG presented a transition plan from RINEX 2.11 to 
RINEX 3.0x over the next few years. While tracking data from GNSS 
capable equipment shall be solely available in RINEX 3 after a target 
date to be specified, tracking data from legacy receivers will continue 
to be available in RINEX 2 for the foreseeable future. The IGS GB 
affirms the transition to RINEX 3 and the further elaboration of the 
transition plan. Detailed information will be issued to the user 
community by the RINEX WG.

* Next Workshop

After our successful workshop in Olsztyn we are already looking forward 
to our next workshop taking place in ... curious? Wait for more information.

With this short summary I want to thank all participants, the 
presenters, session and working group chairs, and the support by the IGS 
CB. I hope that you all got again home safely without major problems.

With best regards

Urs Hugentobler

Chair, IGS Governing Board

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