Advances in Geodetic Science and the realization of new geodetic applications will build upon a well designed and technologically advanced Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS). The accuracy and timeliness of geodetic products must improve to meet the research and operations needs of climate change, natural hazards, and interplanetary exploration. Mass transport within the Earth System is a significant new geodetic observable of the Earth System. Understanding sea level change and crustal dynamics requires a multidecadal reference frame stability better than 0.1 mm/yr. The challenges and opportunities to the GGOS include a tripling of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) accompanied by an expansion of new precise signals; an aging, heterogeneous, and poorly distributed observatory infrastructure; the potential for new, effective and robust observing strategies such as GNSS remote sensing and geodetic imaging.
To advance the understanding of our planet and our universe, we must set a course toward the development of the next generation GGOS- the Geodetic Telescope. The vision for the Geodetic Telescope includes an analytically determined global distribution of real time observatories with co-located VLBI, GNSS, SLR, and DORIS instrumentation meeting defined performance standards. Critical to achieving improved accuracy within the GGOS are integrated observing and analysis strategies to characterize systematic errors. These strategies include SLR and VLBI tracking of the GNSS satellites and advanced geodetic satellites such as follow-ons to GRACE and LAGEOS, and multi-technique integrated analysis software.