[IGSMAIL-8458] Transition to ISO-3166 Alpha-3 codes in the IGS metadata

[Markus Bradke]

Dear IGS/GNSS community,

We are going to be making some changes to the way we describe geographic locations in our site logs and related metadata records. 
These changes will better align our metadata with international geographic standards, such as ISO-3166, ensuring maximum shareability and interoperability, especially in the realm of machine-to-machine communications and machine learning applications, where there is a need to increase the machine readability of IGS metadata as it describes countries, areas, and geographical regions. The change also ensures that our site logs align with other IGS standards such as RINEX and GeodesyML.

Governing Board Decision

After careful consideration, the IGS Governing Board decided (in December 2021) to modify the term “Country” to “Country or Region” (also written “Country/Region”) when talking about place names in the IGS network and community. This modification will be implemented in order to use vocabulary that is more inclusive to stations in international territories and regions, such as the Antarctic and Arctic. This also seeks to preserve and protect the IGS status as a politically neutral scientific organisation.

As such, IGS Governing Board has sanctioned the utilisation of alphabetical three-character (Alpha-3) ISO-3166 country/region codes. An implementation plan has been devised and accepted. Furthermore, the plan has received approval from other international networks, such as APREF and EPN.

The assignment of countries, regions, or areas to specific groupings is for technical interoperability and statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories by the International GNSS Service (IGS). The designations employed and the presentation of material on the IGS site do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the IGS concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

What will change

Over the coming months the IGS Infrastructure Committee will implement the decisions made by the Governing Board through changes to the IGS site logs.

The blank.log <https://files.igs.org/pub/station/general/blank.log> will be replaced with blank_v2.0.log and the instructions provided in sitelog_instr.txt <https://files.igs.org/pub/station/general/sitelog_instr.txt> will be modified and saved as sitelog_instr_v2.0.log.

Furthermore, we will take this opportunity to fully adopt the 9-character station identifiers in both the filename and the metadata files themselves. 
For example, the filename pots_20240101.log will be changed to pots00deu_20240101.log.

Changes to the blank.log

The changes to the blank.log are highlighted in blue.

XXXX Site Information Form (site log)
XXXXMRCCC Site Information Form (site log v2.0)

If Update:
 Previous Site Log       : (ssss_ccyymmdd.log)
 Previous Site Log       : (ssssmrccc_ccyymmdd.log)

Four Character ID        : (A4)
Nine Character ID        : (A9)

Country                  : 
Country or Region        : (A3)

For the station POTS00DEU, the changes will look like this:

POTS Site Information Form (site log)
POTS00DEU Site Information Form (site log v2.0)

If Update:
 Previous Site Log       : pots_20230101.log
 Previous Site Log       : pots00deu_20230101.log

Four Character ID        : POTS
Nine Character ID        : POTS00DEU

Country                  : Germany
Country or Region        : DEU

Timeline for changes

The implementation of the updates will commence on June 5, 2024, utilising the updated site logs appearing in the existing /log_9char <https://files.igs.org/pub/station/log_9char/> directory. 
Initially, only the active site logs will be modified, while the archived site logs will remain untouched.

The changes are planned to be completed by the end of 2024. 
Following this, at a date still to be determined, we will remove the current /log folder, which contains the "old" version logs, and relocate the test directory from /log_9char to /log.

It's important to note that the implementation timeline pertains specifically to metadata on the IGS servers. 
The actual implementation, such as folder structure, for other services like APREF and EPN, may differ. Please refer to their respective email correspondences for more details.

If you have any questions or requests, do not hesitate to contact us under sitelog-transition at igs.org <mailto:sitelog-transition at igs.org>.

Best regards,
Markus Bradke 
(on behalf of the IGS Infrastructure Committee)

M.Eng. Markus Bradke

IGS Infrastructure Committee Coordinator

Section 1.1 Space Geodetic Techniques
Phone: +49 (0)331/6264-1182
Email: markus.bradke at gfz-potsdam.de

Helmholtz Centre Potsdam
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Foundation under public law of the federal state of Brandenburg
Telegrafenberg, D-14473 Potsdam

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igs.org/pipermail/igsmail/attachments/20240415/c5371fc4/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/pkcs7-signature
Size: 5332 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.igs.org/pipermail/igsmail/attachments/20240415/c5371fc4/attachment-0001.p7s>