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

IAG Symposia series

Volumes 136 and 137 of the IAG Symposia Series are now available online at the Springer Web site: www.springerlink.com

Geodesy for Planet Earth

Proceedings of the 2009 IAG Symposium, Buenos Aires , Argentina, 31 August 31 - 4 September 2009

IAG Symp., 136, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-20338-1, 2012

Steve Kenyon, Maria Christina Pacino and Urs Marti (Eds.)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20338-1

and

VII Hotine-Marussi Symposium on Mathematical Geodesy

Proceedings of the Symposium in Rome, 6-10 June, 2009

IAG Symp., 137, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-22078-4

Nico Sneeuw, Pavel Novák, Mattia Crespi and Fernando Sansň (Eds.)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22078-4

Concerning the proceedings of the IAG Symposia at the IUGG meeting in Melbourne, a new volume is now in preparation with the following editorial board: Jozsef Adam, Zuheir Altamimi, Matt Amos, Dorota Brzezinska, John Dawson, Athanasios Dermanis, Reinhard Dietrich, Xiaoli Ding, Jeff Freymueller, Yoichi Fukuda, Richard Gross, Urs Hugentobler, Johannes Ihde, Matt King, Hansjörg Kutterer, Frank Lemoine, Mikael Lilje, Ruth Neilan, Markus Rothacher, Laura Sanchez Marcelo Santos, Harald Shuh, Nico Sneeuw, Oleg Titov, Joao Agria Torres, Sandra Verhagen, Jens Wickert, Pascal Willis (Ed.), Herbert Wilmes.

In total, 109 manuscripts were submitted to the Melbourne proceedings using the new Springer Web site http://iags.edmgr.com/. On April 25, 27 manuscripts were already sent back to their authors with a final decision while 41 others were sent back to their authors for corrections. The other ones submitted more recently are still under review. Authors are regularly informed on the progress of this volume.

Chris Rizos (Editor)

Pascal Willis (assistant Editor-in-Chief)

News Release: Ivan I. Mueller Award for Distinguished Service and Leadership

The Honors and Recognition Committee of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) approved the establishment of the “Ivan I. Mueller Award for Distinguished Service and Leadership.” The Award is to recognize Mueller’s major contribution to international programs that advanced geodesy over the past half century.

The AGU, established in 1919, has more than 60,000 members from 148 countries. The Union is dedicated to the furtherance of the geophysical sciences through the individual efforts of its members and in cooperation with other national and international scientific organizations

Ivan I. Mueller is Professor and Chair Emeritus in the Division of Geodetic Science, School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University. He is Past President of both the International Association of Geodesy and the AGU Geodesy Section.

The goal of the Award is to acknowledge major achievements in service to and/or leadership within the field of geodesy performed by an individual who is a member of the AGU, who has primary or secondary membership in the Geodesy Section, and whose body of work enhances the visibility of geodesy within AGU and within the international associated bodies. This Award encompasses all areas of geodesy, including exceptional performance in fieldwork, the development and maintenance of major software systems, the leadership of scientific initiatives, education and public outreach, and a variety of other service and leadership achievements. Its purpose is to recognize achievements in the field of geodesy beyond scientific and research contributions.

The deadline for nominations for the first “Ivan I. Mueller Award for Distinguished Service and Leadership” will be March 15, 2013 and the first presentation will be in December 2013.

IAG COB

IAG monthly news for GIM – IAG page in the GIM International March 2012

The IAG become a partner with the magazine GIM International from the start of 2012. We would join sister geospatial organisations such as the FIG, ISPRS, ICA, GSDI & OGC in having a monthly page of news. The third article titled “The IAG Services” for the March 2012 issue of GIM is available from the webpage http://www.gim-international.com/issues/articles/id1848-The_IAG_Services.html .

Chris Rizos

President of IAG

ILRS News

The ILRS tracking network is becoming increasingly involved in making laser range measurements to satellites of the emerging Global Navigation Satellite Systems. The very recent agreement of the Governing Board to support three new satellites of the Chinese COMPASS navigation system, a developing constellation that includes satellites in traditional 20,000 km orbits as well as in geosynchronous orbits, brings to 15 the numbers tracked. Of those 15 vehicles, six are from the Russian GLONASS system, which is now fully-populated and operational, and four are from the new EU Galileo system. In recent years, new ILRS recommendations on minimum standards for the design of retro-reflectors have led to range observations to the existing COMPASS-M1, newer GLONASS satellites and the recent two Galileo vehicles being carried out routinely by day and by night.

Laser ranging to the GNSS satellites will link those satellite orbits to the geocentric reference frame that is determined from laser tracking of the dedicated geodetic satellites, and thus enable the GNSS constellations to distribute a very precise reference frame to users worldwide. Laser range observations also provide an important independent check on equivalent ranges determined from analyses of the navigational signals, and thus act as a measure of orbital quality and potential systematic effects. An ILRS technical workshop to discuss these issues is being planned for late 2012 in Frascati, Italy.

Graham Appleby

Chair, ILRS Governing Board

Mike Pearlman

Director, ILRS Central Bureau

Carey Noll

Secretary, ILRS Central Bureau

IVS Launches VGOS: The VLBI2010 Global Observing System

Madrid, March 8, 2012

At its 7th General Meeting, the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS) inaugurated the VLBI2010 Global Observing System (VGOS). On completion VGOS will be a global network of new fast radio telescopes (up to 12 deg/s) and high capacity data acquisition systems (up to 8 Gbps) optimized for Earth orientation and the terrestrial reference frame. Consideration of radical modernization of geodetic VLBI infrastructure began in 2002 leading to community agreement on the VLBI2010 concept. Since then the concept has been elaborated to include cutting edge technology and specifications to optimize accuracy, reliability, and near real-time data delivery while controlling costs. The concept includes more than one radio telescope per site (wherever possible), remote-controlled continuous observations, and automated correlation and data analysis. In this decade several projects have already successfully started to implement parts of the VLBI2010 technology. New radio telescope projects and data acquisition developments are underway world-wide. Simulations have shown that the VLBI2010 Global Observing System can outperform the past observations by almost an order of magnitude. VGOS will be the VLBI component of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS).

A new VGOS station: The Twin Telescope Wettzell

Launch of VGOS at the 7th IVS General Meeting

Invitation for proposals for changes to the IAG Statutes and Bylaws

Article 16 of IAG’s Statutes specifies that the Association shall review its Statutes and Bylaws to ensure an up-to-date structure of its scientific organization every eight years. The last time such a review was initiated was about eight years ago under the presidency of Gerard Beutler. It is now therefore time that we again take a fresh look at our Statutes and Bylaws. To achieve this goal, a Review Committee (traditionally called the Cassinis Committee) was appointed in the fall of 2011 by the IAG Executive. The committee is chaired by Michael Sideris and includes as members Harald Schuh, Ruth Neilan and Yoichi Fukuda. A proposal with all suggested revisions will be made by the Cassinis Committee for consideration by the IAG Executive and possibly the Council at the 2013 Scientific Assembly. In this way, we are hoping to get the Council’s reaction and input to the proposed changes before these are finalized and approved at the next IUGG General Assembly in 2015.

With this announcement, the Cassinis Committee is inviting proposals for changes of any article of the Statutes and Bylaws. Proposals can be submitted through the IAG website Forum (www.iag-aig.org/proposals). The actual Statutes and By-laws can be found on the IAG website. All proposals submitted between March 1, 2012 and February 1, 2013 will be considered by the Cassinis Committee.

We are very much looking forward to receiving your contributions.

Michael Sideris, Harald Schuh, Ruth Neilan, Yoichi Fukuda

Meeting Announcements

GNSS School

May 14-15, 2012, Hong Kong, China

A GNSS School with a theme on "New GNSS Algorithms and Techniques for Earth Observations (nGATEo)" will be held 14-15 May 2012 at the Department of Land Surveying & Geo-Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), Hong Kong, China. With an aim to promote the academic exchange and the training of and service to young engineers/scientists and in-school MSc/PhD/Postdoc researchers, this GNSS School is going to offer all the participants an excellent opportunity to learn the up to date research results in select topics/areas. This GNSS School is supported by the IAG Sub-Commission 4.5: High Precision GNSS Algorithms and Applications.

For more information please read: http://www.lsgi.polyu.edu.hk/Announcement/GNSSSchool.pdf .

George Liu