From John.Dow at esa.int Thu Dec 16 08:38:16 2010 From: John.Dow at esa.int (John.Dow at esa.int) Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:38:16 +0100 Subject: [IGSMAIL-6320] IGS Governing Board elects new Chair Message-ID: 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