It is an open forum and contributors are welcome to send material (preferably in electronic form) to the IAG COB (newsletter@iag-aig.org). These contributions should complement information sent by IAG officials or by IAG symposia organizers (reports and announcements). The IAG Newsletter is published monthly. It is available in different formats from the IAG new internet site: http://www.iag-aig.org

Each IAG Newsletter includes several of the following topics:

I. news from the Bureau Members

II. general information

III. reports of IAG symposia

IV. reports by commissions, special commissions or study groups

V. symposia announcements

VI. book reviews

VII. fast bibliography

Books for review are the responsibility of:

C.C Tscherning

University of Copenhagen

Dept. of Geophysics

Copenhagen, Denmark

Fax: +45 35365357

E-mail: cct@gfy.ku.dk

General Announcements

Deadline Extension for Submissions to the GGOS CfPs

Dear Colleagues,

at the IUGG General Assembly 2007 in Perugia the new Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) were accepted by the IAG Executive Committee. According to these new ToR, the following new components of GGOS are going to be established:

GGOS Coordination Office and GGOS Portal
Bureau for Networks and Communication
Bureau for Standards and Conventions
Bureau for Satellite Missions

In the GGOS website http://ggos.gfz-potsdam.de/ggos/index.php?id=20 you will find the Calls for Proposals (CfP) for these new components. The deadline for submitting your proposal is extended:

November 7, 2008.

More details are given in the documents mentioned.

Please consider this unique opportunity to contribute with your institution, possibly in cooperation with other institutions, to these important activities of GGOS.

Looking forward to your proposals,

with best regards,

Markus Rothacher

Chair of GGOS

Commission 4 News

The IAG Commission 4 will be co-sponsoring the session on Applications in Surveying, Geodesy, Science and Timing at the upcoming International Technical Meeting of the Institute of Navigation (ION ITM 2009) to be held in Anaheim, California, January 26-28, 2009 (https://www.ion.org/meetings/itm2009cfa.cfm) The theme of the ION ITM 2009 is "GNSS Technology: A Path to Sustainable Economic and Social Benefits for Developing Countries" The session will be co-chaired by Dr. Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska, The Ohio State University and Dr. Jade Morton, Miami University.

Sandra Verhagen

Meeting Announcements

Commission 4 Announcement

There are over 500 pre-planned sessions for the AGU Fall 2008 Meeting, including 21 sessions organized by the Geodesy Section of AGU. Among the Geodesy Sessions are 4 sessions on Future GNSS, Geodetic and Geophysical Applications based on GNSS signals, GNSS equipment and site monumentation as well as GNSS signal propagation errors. For further information see http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/.

Sandra Verhagen

Geodesy for Planet Earth

IAG 2009 Scientific Assembly, Buenos Aires, Argentine, August 31 to September 4, 2009

2^nd Circular is reachable through the webpage of the conference www.iag2009.com.ar.

Important Dates

Deadline for Submission of Abstracts: January 31st, 2009
End of Early Registration: March 31st, 2009
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: March, 2009
Deadline for accommodation booking at Intercontinental Hotel (Special Rate): March 31st, 2009
Third Circular: June, 2009
Deadline for Submission of Full-Papers Manuscripts: September 30th, 2009

Local Organizing Committee

EOGC2009

2^nd International Conference on Earth Observation for Global Changes

25–29 May 2009, Chengdu, China

EOGC2009 Topics:

International Earth Observation Efforts on Global Change Studies
Remote Sensing of Land Use and Land Cover Change (LULCC)
Remote Sensing of Coastal and Marine Ecosystems
Remote Sensing of Snow and Ice
Remote Sensing of the Polar Environment
Monitoring Eco-Environmental Changes in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
Observing Global Change by Geodetic Techniques
Environmental Monitoring by the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS)
Earth Observation for Natural Hazards Monitoring and Assessment
Geospatial Data Processing and Integration for Change Detection

2^nd Announcement and Call for Papers is available from http://www.eogc2009.com.cn/.

Important Dates

Abstract submission: December 1, 2008
Full paper submission: January 15, 2009
Registration: April 1, 2009
Pre-Conference workshops: May 25, 2009

Xianfeng Zhang

(Conference Secretariat)

Peking University

VII Hotine-Marussi Symposium 2009 on Theoretical Geodesy

15–19 June 2009, Rome, Italy, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei

Scientific Organization Committee:

Nico Sneeuw
Pavel Novák
Study group chairs and steering committee members of IAG InterCommission Committee on Theory (IAG-ICCT)

Local Organization Committee:

Mattia Crespi

The first circular letter will be sent out in December, 2008. By that time, a website will have been set up with additional information (under construction).

Nico Sneeuw

Colloquium to honour Helmut Moritz

on November 14, 2008 at Berlin (Germany)

(Extract of the Second Circular)

Invitation

On November 1, 2008, Prof. Dr. techn. Dr. h.c. mult. Helmut Moritz, Graz, Member of the Leibniz Society of Sciences at Berlin, Full Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), foreign member of over ten national academies of sciences, is reaching the age of 75.

On this occasion the Leibniz Society, to honour its standing member of many years’, is organising an all-day Colloquium on the theme “Scientific Geodesy” on November 14, 2008, at Berlin. This colloquium is supported by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) and the Graz Technical University.

We invite warmly all the friends of Helmut Moritz, his colleagues, coworkers and scholars, as well as all the persons, interested in the theme of the colloquium, to attend.

A registration fee for the colloquium is not requested. We ask to apply for registration in time using the application form.

Provisional Programme

Pre-programme on November 13, 2008

10.00 to 16.00 h Scientific sessions of the Leibniz Society on themes of theoretical physics to honour Hans-Jürgen Treder, Member of Leibniz Society, who passed away on November 18, 2006, on the occasion of his 80 th birthday (Programme enclosed)

18.00 h Informal meeting of the contributors to the Colloquium „Scientific Geodesy“

November 14, 2008 Colloquium „Scientific Geodesy“

Location of the sessions: Otto-Suhr-Saal in Neues Stadthaus at Berlin-Mitte, Parochialstr. 1-3, near by the stations S- und U-Bahnhof Alexanderplatz.

Registration for attendance is requested.

The contributions will be presented in the language used in the title. Summaries in German and English will be available during the meeting.

10.00 h – 12.30 h Morning Session

10.00 h Opening, Laudationes, Addresses

Dieter B. Herrmann, President of the Leibniz Society,

Begrüßung und Eröffnung des Kolloquiums

Herbert Mang, Former President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences,

Laudatio auf Helmut Moritz

Heinz Kautzleben, Member of the Leibniz Society,

Die Geodäsie ab dem IGJ und Helmut Moritz

Herrmann Drewes, General Secretary of the International Association of Geodesy,

Address to Helmut Moritz from the IAG

Hans Sünkel, Rector of the Graz Technical University,

Grußadresse der TU Graz

Addresses from the Austrian Geodetic Commission and the German Geodetic Commission

Bogdan Ney, Member of the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences,

Address to Helmut Moritz from the Polish Academy of Sciences

Yury M. Neyman, Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography,

The Russian Geodesy and Helmut Moritz. Address from MIIGAIK

Announcement of the other addresses from Academies, Scientific Societies and Universities, which has elected Helmut Moritz for Foreign Member or Doctor honoris causa, respectively

11.30 h Start of presenting the scientific papers

Fernando Sansň & G. Venuti, Milano,

The convergence problem for the collocation solution; a return

Christian C. Tscherning, Copenhagen,

The use of least-squares collocation for the processing of GOCE data

Petr Holota, Prague,

Problems of potential theory in gravity field studies

Elena Mazurova, Moscow,

Corrections for ellipsoidality

12.30 h to 14.30h Lunch break

14.30 h to 17.00 h Afternoon session

14.30 h Continuation of presenting the scientific papers

Erik W. Grafarend, Stuttgart,

Helmut Moritz, das Somigliana-Pizetti-Referenz-Schwerefeld und „Mars“, die Referenz-Äquipotentialfläche

Jürgen Müller, Hannover,

Moderne Geodäsie – eine Herausforderung für Gravitations- und Quantenphysik

Bernhard Hofmann-Wellenhof, Graz,

Galileo Galilei und Helmut Moritz im Diskurs

Bogdan Ney, Warsaw,

Integration of geoinformations

Victor P. Savinykh, Moscow,

Space monitoring for nature and antropogenic disasters

Juhani Kakkuri, Helsinki,

Weikko Heiskanen and Helmut Moritz

Markku Poutanen, Helsinki,

From Maupertuis to GRACE. Finnish contributions to the global geodesy

Günter Leonhardt, Gera,

Der Dresdener Geodät Horst Peschel (1909-1989)

Dieter Lelgemann, Berlin,

Eratosthenes von Kyrene und das heliozentrische Konzept des Planetensystems

Herbert Hörz, Berlin,

Unbestimmtheit und Exaktheit in der Wissenschaft – Anmerkungen zu wissenschaftsmethodologischen Überlegungen von Helmut Moritz

Helmut Moritz, Graz,

Schlusswort zum Kolloquium

Große Mathematiker und die Geowissenschaften. Von Pythagoras zu Einstein und Hilbert

17.00 h End of the scientific meeting

18.00 h Informal meeting of the participants to the Colloquium “Scientific Geodesy” to honour Helmut Moritz

Addresses for Questions:

Leibniz-Sozietät der Wissenschaften zu Berlin e.V.

Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus, Luisenstr. 58/59, D-10117 Berlin

www.leibniz-sozietaet.de

Prof. Dr. Heinz Kautzleben

Schneewittchenstr. 18, D-12524 Berlin

e-mail: kautzleben.leibniz-sozietaet@t-online.de

Heinz Kautzleben

IAG Sponsored Meetings

EOGC2009

May 25-29, 2009, Chengdu, China

The Second International Conference on Earth Observation for Global Changes (EOGC2009) will take place in Chengdu, China, 25-29 May 2009. Knowledge about changes to the Earth's surface and the underlying processes that induce them has enormous impacts on how society responds to these changes. With its remarkable progress in the past decade, Earth observation technology has been playing a crucial role in studies on global changes. EOGC2009 promises to bring together a broad range of scientists, researchers, students, and practitioners worldwide in leading academic institutions and government and industrial laboratories, to enjoy a week of technical sessions, tutorials, exhibits and social activities. Please visit http://www.eogc2009.com.cn/ for details.

Geodesy for Planet Earth

IAG 2009 Buenos Aires

August 31 to September 4, 2009

The International Association of Geodesy Scientific Assembly IAG2009 that will be hosted by the IUGG National Committee together with the Argentine Association of Geophysics and Geodesy, will take place in the city of Buenos Aires. IAG2009 will be an event that covers the whole of geodesy in an exciting social environment that extends our knowledge, improves our practice, and widens our friendship networks. Following the long outstanding tradition of these scientific assemblies, IAG2009 will be a major scientific event, bringing together geodesists from all over the world, and demonstrating the vital role that geodesy plays in our society. This will be the main geodetic meeting in 2009. 2^nd Circular is reachable through the webpage of the conference www.iag2009.com.ar.

IAG Related Meetings

ACM GIS 2008

November 5-7, 2008, Irvine, CA, USA

The ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems 2008 (ACM GIS 2008) is the sixteenth event of a series of symposia and workshops that began in 1993 with the aim of bringing together researchers, developers, users, and practitioners carrying out research and development in novel systems based on geo-spatial data and knowledge, and fostering interdisciplinary discussions and research in all aspects of geographic information systems. Additional information is available through the webpage http://acmgis08.cs.umn.edu/.

Digital Earth Summit on Geoinformatics: Tools for Global Change Research

November, 12-14, 2008, Potsdam, Germany

The summit will be held in Wissenschaftspark Albert Einstein, Potsdam, Germany from 12-14 November 2008. It will bring together leading scientists from Geoinformatics and Global Change research and will foster the exchange of ideas, cooperation between so-far disjoint scientific fields and provide time for in-depth discussion. For details please visit the webpage of conference, www.isde-summit-2008.org.

SCSS 2008

December 5-13, 2008, e-conference

The Fourth International Conference on Systems, Computing Sciences and Software Engineering SCSS 2008 provides a virtual forum for presentation and discussion of the state-of the-art research on Systems, Computing Sciences and Software Engineering. SCSS 2008 is one of the sub-conferences in the CISSE series of international joint e-conferences. SCSS 08 provides a virtual forum for presentation and discussion of the state-of the-art research on computers, information and systems sciences and engineering. The virtual conference will be conducted through the Internet using web-conferencing tools, made available by the conference. Authors will be presenting their PowerPoint, audio or video presentations using web-conferencing tools without the need for travel. The website of the conference is http://www.cisse2008online.org.

2008 AGU Fall Meeting

December 15-19, 2008, San Francisco, USA

The 2008 AGU Fall Meeting is expected to draw a crowd of over 15,000 geophysicists from around the world. The Fall Meeting provides an opportunity for researchers, teachers, students, and consultants to present and review the latest issues affecting the Earth, the planets, and their environments in space. This meeting will cover topics in all areas of Earth and space sciences. Among the Geodesy Sessions are 4 sessions on Future GNSS, Geodetic and Geophysical Applications based on GNSS signals, GNSS equipment and site monumentation as well as GNSS signal propagation errors. For further information see http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/.

GEOWS 2009

February, 1-6, 2009, Cancun, Mexico

GEOWS 2009, The International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems & Web Services will be held in Cancun, Mexico between 1-6 February 2009. Conference details and call for papers are reacheable from the webpage http://www.iaria.org/conferences2009/GEOWS09.html.

Munich Satellite Navigation Summit 2009

March, 3-5, 2009, Munich, Germany

The Munich Satellite Navigation Summit 2009 – the seventh one, to be held March 3-5, 2009 in the famous “Residenz München”, Germany – has been established as the European and International conference with global impact featuring invited high-ranking worldwide speakers from industry, science and governments dealing with the directions of satellite navigation now and in the future. Emphasizing a future trend in satellite navigation, this year’s Summit will focus on special sessions on safety and security, in particular also on the use of the Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS). Please visit http://www.munich-satellite-navigation-summit.org/Summit2009/ for details.

CCCT 2009

July 10-13, 2009, Orlando, Florida, USA

The 7th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies: CCCT 2009 (http://www.2009iiisconferences.org/CCCT) will take place in Orlando, Florida, USA, on July 10th - 13th, 2009. CCCT Conferences are yearly events intended to serve as an encounter point for Computer, Communications and Control Technologies researchers, practitioners, consultants and users who have been interchanging ideas, research results and innovations in the mentioned areas and other related topics. The deadline to submit a paper/abstract is November 12^th, 2008.

6th International Symposium on Mobile Mapping Technology – MMT’09

July 21-24, 2009, Presidente Prudente, Săo Paulo, Brazil

The 6^th International Symposium on Mobile Mapping Technology “Mobile Mapping Serving the Information Society” will take place in Presidente Prudente, Săo Paulo, Brazil, July 21-24, 2009. The main objective of the conference is to discuss the most recent technology and its application, to exchange experiences and to promote future research aiming at the development and the production in the fields related to mobile mapping. You may want to check out the website http://www.fct.unesp.br/eventos/simposio/mmt09/ingles to get preliminary information on MMT’09.

IAG Sister Societies’ General Assemblies

Associations’ Scientific Assemblies of the IUGG

IUGG/IAGA, August 23-30, 2009, Sopron, Hungary
IUGG/IAHS, September 7-12, 2009, Hyderabad, India
IUGG/IASPEI, January 10-16, 2009, Cape Town, S outh Africa
IUGG/IAG, August 31-September 4, 2009, Buenos Aires , Argentina
IUGG/IACS-IAMAS-IAPSO, July 19-29, 2009, Montreal, Canada

Reports

The Fifth ABLOS Scientific Conference: Difficulties in Implementing the Provisions of UNCLOS

IHB. Monaco, October 15 – 17, 2008

The Fifth Conference of the IAG/IHO* Advisory Board on Scientific and Technical Aspects of the Law of the Sea (ABLOS) was held at the International Hydrographic Bureau, in the Principality of Monaco, on 15-17 October 2008. The purpose of this Conference was to draw together specialists from a variety of disciplines for a discussion of the challenges that arise when applying science and technology with due consideration of the juridical requirements of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Conference was very successful, attracting a capacity audience of 90 delegates from 30 countries, with 23 papers being presented during 9 sessions. The sessions dealt with such topics as:

· The delimitation of the outer continental shelf

· Technical and legal issues concerning territorial sea baselines in a changing environment

· The protection of the marine environment - principles and practices

· The definitions of sea level and sounding datum

· The establishment and application of marine cadastres

· Marine scientific research and the collection of oceanographic data

Most of the papers submitted and presentations given during the Conference are available for download from the IHO web site http://www.iho.int > Committees > ABLOS > 5th Conference.

The 6th ABLOS Conference is planned to be held in Monaco in October 2010 and further details will be made available in due course.

The Conference was preceded by the 15th ABLOS Business Meeting which was held on 14-15 October. The meeting was well attended with only 1 member of ABLOS not being able to attend. The ex-officio members from the United Nations – Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (UN-DOALOS) and the IHB and five Observers also attended the meeting. The meeting elected Professor Chris Rizos (Australia), from the IAG, as the new Chairman, and Chris Carleton (UK), from the IHO, as Vice Chairman. They assumed their positions following the closure of the 5th Conference. (The report of the 15th Business Meeting will be available from the ABLOS section of the IHO web site once it has been approved by the ABLOS members.)

* IAG: International Association for Geodesy; IHO: International Hydrographic Organization

Chris Rizos