Gy. Tóth | 2023-08-03

July/August 2023


General Announcements

  • Summary Report of the IUGG 28th General Assembly
  • Peter Teunissen elected Fellow of the IUGG
  • IAG Resolutions
  • Correction to the 1999 IAG Resolution No. 3 on the calculation of group refractive index for EDM

Meeting Announcements

  • Summer School on the Use of New Quantum Technologies in Geodesy

Meetings Calendar

IAG Sponsored Meetings

  • GGOS Days 2023
  • WGAAL2023
  • ILRS Technical Workshop 2023
  • 20th WEGENER Assembly 2023
  • International School on the Geoid
  • IVS 13th General Meeting and 25th Anniversary

Geodesy Related Meetings

  • International Symposium on Satellite Navigation: Advances, Opportunities and Challenges (ISSN2023)
  • AGU Fall Meeting
  • EGU General Assembly 2024
  • ION Pacific PNT Conference
  • FIG Working Week 2024
  • 45th COSPAR Scientific Assembly


General Announcements

Summary Report of the IUGG 28th General Assembly

Six geodesy-only symposia and seven joint, geodesy-lead symposia were organised with a total of 661 abstracts submitted.  

A summary of the Symposia reports given by the conveners at the IAG Closing Ceremonies can be found here.

Group photo of the IAG participants


Council Meetings

The IAG Council had two meetings during the Assembly, July 12 and July 19. In the meeting of July 12, Secretary General introduced the budget for the last period 2019-2022, and the budget plan for the next period 2023-2026. The 2019-2022 budget showed a considerable surplus due to the Pandemic. Almost all activities were suspended for more than two years without any meetings or travel Award applications. The 2023-2026 budget is planned to have a large deficit to approach the balance in the long term budgeting. The council appointed the Audit Committee for examining the finances of the IAG and the planned budget. The members of the Audit Committee were Mattia Crespi, Italy, Chair), Xiaoli Deng (Australia), Ismael Foroughi (Canada), and Jyri Näränen (Finland).

The Council also appointed the Resolution Committee to prepare the IAG Resolutions. Members of the Committee were Christopher Kotsakis (President of Commission 1), Adrian Jäggi (President of Commission 2, Chair), Janusz Bogusz (President of Commission 3), Allison Kealy (President of Commission 4), and Basara Miyahara (President of GGOS). 

Harald Schuh, Chair of the Cassinis Committee to prepare the changes in the IAG Statutes and bylaws introduced the proposed changes. 

In the second meeting of the Council on July 19, the Audit Committee proposed in its report the discharge of the management and adoption of the budget which were approved unanimously. Also, the changes in the Statutes and the bylaws, as well as the resolution were approved. They can be found here.


Awards and Fellowships


Georges Balmino

Hermann Drewes

IAG Awarded two Levallois medals which were awarded in recognition of distinguished service to the Association and the science of geodesy in general. The medals were awarded to Hermann Drewes for his invaluable impact on the development of the SIRGAS as well as for his more than 25-year-long duties within the IAG as Section Chair, Commission Chair and Secretary General (2007-2019), and Georges Balmino for his outstanding works on the modelling of the gravity fields of Earth, Moon and other planets as well as his key role in the planning phase of the dedicated Earth's gravity field satellite mission GOCE. Laudations, given by Harald Schuh and Gerhard Beutler can be found here and here, respectively.


Matthias Willen

Radoslaw Zajdel
IAG Young Author’s Award 2021 was awarded to Radoslaw Zajdel for his paper: Zajdel, R., Sośnica, K., Bury, G. et al. Sub-daily polar motion from GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo. J Geod95, 3 (2021) and 2022 award to Matthias Willen for his paper: Willen, M.O., Horwath, M., Groh, A. et al. Feasibility of a global inversion for spatially resolved glacial isostatic adjustment and ice sheet mass changes proven in simulation experiments. J Geod96, 75 (2022)  



Jan Martin Brockmann

IAG established the Best Reviewer Award to officially recognize the important work of excellent reviewing for the Journal of Geodesy. The first one was awarded to Jan Martin Brockmann for reviewing extremely challenging manuscripts, including methodological papers with numerous development of ideas as well as for his careful and thorough and most importantly timely reviews.





Amir Khodabandeh
The Guy Bomford Prize is awarded for outstanding contribution to Geodesy. The 2023 Guy Bomford Prize was awarded to Amir Khodabandeh for his research activities in the Geodetic Estimation Theory Applied to GNSS. According to the laudatio, "his research contribution is unique and distinguished because of the mathematical rigour which he employs to develop methodical frameworks addressing research questions from basic principles". Dr Khodabandeh gave the speech in the opening ceremonies, titled Geodetic Mixed-Integer Models.  GNSS Network Estimability, PPP-RTK and Beyond.



A total of 23 new IAG Fellows were nominated and the certificates were given in the IAG Closing Ceremonies. New IAG Fellows are: 

  • Graham  Appleby  (UK)
  • Kyriakos Balidakis  (Germany)
  • Elmar Brockmann  ( (Switzerland))
  • Sonia Costa  (Brazil)
  • Yamin Dang  (China)
  • Wei Feng (China)
  • Gabriel do Nascimento Guimarães (Brazil)
  • Ryan Hippenstiel   (USA)
  • Xiaopeng  Li  (USA)
  • Martin Lidberg  (Sweden)
  • Ulrich  Meyer  (Switzerland)
  • Basara  Miyahara  (Japan)
  • Emily Montgomery-Brown  (USA)
  • Takuya  Nishimura  (Japan)
  • Jean-Mathieu  Nocquet  (France)
  • Toshimichi  Otsubo  (Japan)
  • Paul Rebischung  (France)
  • Laura Ruotsalainen  (Finland)
  • Alvaro  Santamaría-Gómez  (France)
  • Zheng-Kang Shen  (USA)
  • Wenbin Shen   (China)
  • Rebekka  Steffen  (Sweden)
  • Derek van Westrum  (USA)

The new IAG Fellows present at the IAG Closing Ceremony

IAG President Zuheir Altamimi and Secretary General Markku Poutanen in the period 2019-2023 were promoted to the IAG Honorary President and Honorary Secretary General. 


Zuheir Altamimi being promoted to
the IAG Honorary President

Markku Poutanen being promoted to
the IAG Honorary Secretary General

New Executive Committee


The IAG Council has elected the officers of the Association for the period 2023-2027. The members of the Executive Committee are:

  • Richard Gross (president)
  • Peter .J. Teunissen (vice-president)
  • Daniela Thaller (secretary general)
  • Zuheir Altamimi (immediate past president)
  • Markku Poutanen (immediate past secretary general)
  • Urs Hugentobler (president of Commission 1)
  • Srinivas Bettadpur (president of Commission 2)
  • Rebekka Steffen (president of Commission 3)
  • Pawel Wielgosz (president of Commission 4)
  • Mattia Crespi (president of Intercommission Committee on Theory)
  • Anette Eicker (president of Intercommission Committee on Geodesy for Climate Research)
  • Velérie Ballu (president of Intercommission Committee on Marine Geodesy)
  • Szabolcs Rózsa (president of the Communication and Outreach Branch)
  • Jürgen Müller (chair of the IAG Project Novel Sensors and Quantum Technology for Geodesy
  • Maria Virginia Mackern (Member at Large)
  • Masato Furuya (Member at Large)
  • Laura Sánchez (president of the IAG Global Geodetic Observing System)
  • Vincenza Luceri (Service Representative)
  • Thomas Herring (Service Representative)
  • Riccardo Barzaghi (Service Representative)


The new IAG Executive Committee held its first meeting in Berlin on July 20.


The Executive Committee (2023-2027) after its 1st meeting in Berlin

Reports and Upcoming events

IAG Reports (Travaux de l’IAG) vol 43 (2023) is in the IAG web site (https://www.iag-aig.org/travaux/Travaux2023). It has almost 1000 pages and contains detailed information on the activities of IAG entities in the period 2019-2022.

National reports are placed on the website as they are sent to the Secretary-General (https://www.iag-aig.org/national-reports/NatRep2023). We urge nations to submit the reports for the website.

Authors of IAG-related presentations (orals or posters) in the Assembly are urged to submit papers to the IAG Symposia Series. The submission deadline will be September 30 and the submission is via the Springer portal at http://www.springer.com/series/1345. There is a full peer review process and the accepted papers will be all open access. IAG is paying the fees, so the papers are free of charge to the authors. The page limit for a paper is 8 pages. Individual papers are available openly and citable on the Springer website shortly after acceptance. All papers from each volume will be packaged together as an open-access e-book once all editorial work is done.

The IAG Scientific Assembly 2025 will be held at Rimini, Italy, September 1-5. The event is hosted by the University of Bologna. Please, mark this already now in your calendar.

Markku Poutanen


Peter Teunissen elected Fellow of the IUGG

Professor Teunissen of Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, was elected Fellow and Honorary Member of the IUGG ‘for his exceptional contributions and international leadership in the geodetic sciences, satellite positioning and navigation’. He received his award at the opening of the IUGG General Assembly 2023 in Berlin from IUGG’s Vice-President Prof. Chris Rizos.



IAG Resolutions

Resolutions of the IAG are available from the IAG website at https://www.iag-aig.org/doc/64c67b2f61534.pdf. 


Correction to the 1999 IAG resolution No. 3 on the calculation of group refractive index for EDM 

IAG Resolution 3 of the 1999 Birmingham IUGG General Assembly recommended to compute the group refractive index in air for electronic distance measurement to better than one part per million (ppm) with visible and near infrared waves in the atmosphere using the computer procedure published by Ciddor & Hill in Applied Optics (1999, Vol.38, No.9,1663-1667) and Ciddor in Applied Optics (1996, Vol. 35, No.9, 1566-1573).

However, within the 18SIB01 GeoMetre project of the European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR) in 2020 Florian Pollinger of PTB, Braunschweig, Germany pointed out that in the annex which provides the algorithm, there is a sign error which cause a deviation in results. The resulting group index of refraction deviates in about the correct order of magnitude from the group index but the deviation has the wrong sign. Explanation is published in: Pollinger, F. (2020) Refractive index of air. 2. Group index: comment Appl. Opt., OSA, 2020, 59, 9771-9772 https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.400796.

IAG recommends to use the correction published by Pollinger (2020) when using the Ciddor and Hill Formula according to the IAG Resolution #3 of 1999.



Meeting Announcements


Summer School on the Use of New Quantum Technologies for Geodesy

September 25-29 2023, Hannover, Germany


The Collaborative Reasearch Center TerraQ invites up to 30 M.Sc. and PhD students, to attend the 1st TerraQ Summer School on Modern techniques for gravity field recovery hosted at Leibniz University Hannover. The lectures, delivered by experts in the fields of Gravity Field Recovery, Relativistic Geodesy Terrestrial Gravimetry and Applications and Future Missions, aim at preparing the next generation of young researchers in these fields.

Accommodation as well as participation is free of charge for the selected attendees.

Registration Deadline is the 4th of August, 2023.

www.terraq.uni-hannover.de/de/summerschool23 

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Jürgen Müller


Meetings Calendar

IAG Sponsored Meetings

Geodesy Related Meetings

Further details are available in the IAG Event Calendar at: http://www.iag-aig.org/events.


Book Review


Geodesy (5th edition)

Title: Geodesy, 5th edition

Authors: Torge, Wolfgang, Müller, Jürgen and Pail, Roland

Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

ISBN: 9783110723298 (Paper), 9783110723304 (eBook)

Year: 2023

Price: € 69.95 (Paper), € 69.95 (PDF and eBook)

Details: 506 pages

Other: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110723304 



My five books of “Torge: Geodesy” are in front of me. The first two are still in German, and the 3rd, 4th and 5th editions are in English. The first edition from 1972 is a Göschen volume. Mine has disintegrated into its individual parts, obviously used a lot. This little volume is aimed at students of surveying and geodesy in the higher semester and at geoscientists in related fields. The small textbook conveys geodesy in an easily understandable form. It successfully combines the measurement methods with the underlying theoretical principles and evaluation methods as well as with the resulting products. It was possible to span the arc from the historical origins to the current applications in science and practice. It is noteworthy that this description still largely applies to the 5th edition now available. The concept and many parts of the text, illustrations, and formulas have made it from the first Göschen volume to the latest edition.

In the 50 years since it was first published, science and technology have made incredible advances. Geodesy, as "measuring and numerical science" benefited very fundamentally from these innovations when we think of electronics, automation, computers, data processing, and especially satellites and their possibilities. No other geodesy book described this development as complete and accurate. Think of the role of high-precision clocks, the method of time measurement, or satellite altimetry, which suddenly made it possible to measure the surface of the sea, the grandiose range of applications of "geodetic" GPS, now extended by several other global satellite positioning systems, SAR interferometry or satellite gravimetry. All these developments, each accompanied by a brief but very precise treatment of the theoretical basics and the description of the resulting new areas of application, can be followed wonderfully from the five editions of this classic; a journey through time worth reading.

The authors of the 5th edition of the textbook "Geodesy" are Wolfgang Torge, Jürgen Müller, and Roland Pail (after Jürgen Müller, who was added in the 4th edition, Roland Pail now completes the team of authors). The publisher is De Gruyter/Oldenbourg. The volume grew from 433 to 506 pages. The attractive exterior is similar to that of the 4th edition.

So what's new in the 5th edition? The basic structure, divided into 8 sections, was retained. A new chapter, “Geodesy: Challenges and Future Perspectives”, was added. All parts have been thoroughly revised, updated, and shortened in parts in order not to increase its volume significantly. Most of the many text inserts with historical or otherwise interesting additions have also been preserved. A probably unique treasure trove is the revised and expanded bibliography, with over 1000 entries. Here, too, the arc is drawn from the early years of geodesy to the present. The new edition also benefits from the addition of a large number of superb colour graphics which not only aid in understanding but also enhance the volume's aesthetics. Let me give a selection of newly added topics. The Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS), as a synthesis and anchor point of the geodetic work on the geometry of the earth figure, the gravitational field, and the earth's rotation is explained, as well as the task of the related Subcommittee Geodesy under the umbrella of the United Nations. The emerging role of optical clocks as a future means of determining and unifying continental and intercontinental heights. The principle and the emerging role of quantum gravimetry. The latest developments in satellite altimetry applied to our planet's sea and ice surfaces and the focus on ice sheet melting and sea level rise. The detailed treatment of satellite gravimetry, i.e. the first gravity gradiometry mission GOCE and satellite-to-satellite tracking of GRACE, GRACE-FO, and possibly of future missions. This part includes the rationale of these methods and the processing of the mission data into gravity field models, whether as pure satellite models or as combination models with terrestrial gravity and topography data. After 50 years of development, accompanied by an increase in accuracy of three orders of magnitude and continuous refinement of the complete arsenal of terrestrial and satellite measurement methods, it can be claimed today: Geodesy is able to reliably reveal the tiny temporal changes of the earth’s figures, gravity field and rotation. An achievement of fundamental importance for geodesy itself and of inestimable value for hydrology, glaciology, oceanography, meteorology, and geodynamics. It is geodesy's contribution to research into the earth system and climate change. Almost somewhat hidden, this success story is highlighted in the eighth chapter with some outstanding examples. This part particularly benefits from the excellent colour graphics and is supplemented by many current references. As the authors write, the newly added ninth and final chapter is an attempt to place the contribution of geodesy that is achieved now in the context of global earth observation, and this against the background of the great social and scientific challenges. In my opinion, it is a successful step to classify the emerging developments in geodesy in a larger overall picture.

The "Geodesy" by Torge, Müller, and Pail offers an excellent overall picture of geodesy, its measuring methods, evaluation models and recent successes. This volume is dedicated to the great geodesist Helmut Moritz (1933 – 2022). His "Physical Geodesy" and next to it the 5th edition of "Geodesy", two classics that were never in competition, but in mutual respect. Recommended for every geodesist and more than ever for every scientist who wants to get acquainted with geodesy.


Reiner Rummel, München


The IAG Newsletter is under the editorial responsibility of the Communication and Outreach Branch (COB) of the IAG. 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:

  1. news from the Bureau Members   
  2. general information
  3. reports of IAG symposia
  4. reports by commissions, special commissions or study groups
  5. symposia announcements
  6. book reviews
  7. fast bibliography

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