IAG Birmingham 1999 - important activities & development

Following are the activity plan of IAG for the next four years;

After the initial discussions in November 1995 and Potsdam meeting in April 1997 Rummel presented a proposal for a Global Integrated Geodetic and Geodynamic Observing System (IGGOS) that incorporates many of the current activities and relates them to a common framework. The proposal would not only give a focus to IAG research, but would also result in a much higher visibility of the IAG contribution to Earth Sciences in general.

To start the satellite gravity mission - the second priority recognizes the difference in accuracy that currently exists between the various methods of global positioning (SLR, VLBI, GPS) on the one hand and the methods of global gravity field and geoid determination on the other. One obvious reason for the lower accuracy in gravity field approximation is the lack of dedicated satellite missions for gravity field research. Such missions would result in a much more consistent global resolution of the gravity field than is available today.

In 1995, when this discussion started, no mission in this area had been approved. There is the realistic possibility that three dedicated gravity missions may be launched within the next five to six years and that we actually may be entering a decade of potential field satellite missions.

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