1998 IGS Analysis Centre Workshop

From 9 to 11 February 1998 ESOC hosted the 1998 Analysis Centre Workshop of the International GPS Service for Geodynamics (IGS). The Workshop, which was preceded the day before by a business meeting of the IGS Governing Board, was attended by some 50 invited participants from the USA, Canada, Australia, France, UK, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Spain, Denmark, Belgium and Germany in addition to ESOC and ESTEC staff.

The IGS aims at realising the full accuracy potential of the Global Positioning System GPS for a wide range of precise applications, including satellite orbit determination, ground positioning and navigation, atmospheric mapping... It began operations with a 3 month global test campaign in 1992, which was so successful that it immediately continued as a pilot project and eventually on 1 January 1994 as an official service of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) and the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). A variety of space and other government agencies and universities are involved. The IGS comprises a network of ca. 150 GPS ground receivers, seven Analysis Centres, several Operational Data Centres, three global Data Centres, and a Central Bureau (the latter function performed at JPL). The Analysis Centres generate high accuracy GPS ephemerides, earth orientation parameters, coordinates and velocities of the IGS tracking sites, and tropospheric and ionospheric information. ESOC participates with its GPS Tracking and Data Analysis Facility (GPS-TDAF), consisting of six receivers (installed at Maspalomas, Kourou, Perth, Kiruna, Villafranca and Malindi), the associated communication interfaces, and processing and analysis software. It functions as an analysis centre and operational data centre, and has a member on the Governing Board.

The main topics discussed at the workshop were:

Each of the major topics was addressed by a "Position Paper" prepared and coordinated in advance of the workshop by two or three authors from different centres, plus additional contributed papers, followed by a discussion period and subsequent agreement on a list of recommendations and actions to be implemented. Miscellaneous topics were handled in a half-day session. Eleven posters were on display during the workshop, which provided another forum for discussion.

The general consensus by the end of the Wednesday afternoon overview session was that the workshop had been very successful in achieving its aims, with a clear set of changes to be put in place by the analysis centres by March and June this year. The workshop proceedings are being prepared for publishing. 

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