Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS)
Thirteenth Meeting of the Steering Committee
Bertinoro, Italy
Friday, March 28, 2008, 14:00 PM to 17:0


Minutes (Version 0.2)
written by
Hans-Peter Plag
(Version of 2008- 4-11 20:26).


Participants:


Markus Rothacher, GFZ (Chair, GGOS Steering Committee)
Chris Rizos (Delegate, Commission 4)
Hans-Peter Plag, NBMG (Vice-chair, GGOS Steering Committee)
Michael Pearlman, Smithonian (Executive Committee; Chair, GGOS WG Network and Communications)
Chopo Ma, GSFC (Executive Committee; Delegate, IERS)
Susanna Zerbini, University of Bologna (Executive Committee)
Erricos Pavlis, JCET/UMBC (Delegate, ILRS)
Mark Tamisiea, POL (Substitute, PSMSL)
Bernd Richter, BKG (Chair, GGOS WG Data and Infrastructure)
Richard Gross, JPL (Chair, Science Panel)
Srinivas Bettadpur, University of Texas (Guest)
Zuheir Altamimi, IGN (Delegate, Commission 1)
Graham Appleby, NERC Space Geodetic Facility (Substitute, ILRS)
Riccardo Barzaghi (Substitute, IGeS)
Dirk Behrend, GSFC (Delegate, IVS)
Hermann Drewes, DGFI (Chair WG on Convensions)
Weijun Gan, China Earthquake Administration (Member at Large)
Steve Kenyon (Substitute, IGFS)
Corinna Kroner, University Jena (Substitute, GGP)
Urs Marti (Substitute, Commission 2)
James Park (SC Member at Large)
Paul Poli (Member Science Panel)
Martin Vermeer (Delegate, Commission 2)
Markku Poutanen, Finish Geodetic Institute (Delegate, Commission 2)
Herbert Wilmes, BKG (Guest)
Sylvain Bonvalot, IRD (Guest)
N. Ravi Kumar, NGRI (Guest)

Agenda:

1 Welcome and Discussion of Agenda

2 Minutes of SC12
The draft minutes of SC12 are available as html and pdf . The minutes will not be discussed in any detail. The participants are asked to identify necessary changes and/or corrections.

3 Action Item Status
The list of action items from previous SC meetings is available as html and pdf .

4 Brief Reports from the GGOS Chairs

5 WG Chairs (Satellite mission, Outreach)

6 Charter of the GGOS WG on GEO Relations
The draft charter for the WG on GEO Relations is available at the WG's web page .

7 GGOS2020 Strategy Document
The Version 0.18 of the GGOS 2020 Reference Document is available at the GGOS 2020 web page .

8 Recommendations of the GGOS Retreat

9 GGOS Stakeholder Conference

10 CfP for Coordinating Office

11 CfP for GGOS Portal

12 Future modifications of the GGOS ToRs

13 Any other business

14 Summary of Action Items

Notes:

1 Welcome and Discussion of Agenda

Markus Rothacher opened the Steering Committee meeting and welcomed all participants. He went through the agenda, and asked for any changes or additions. No changes or additions were requested.

2 Minutes of SC12

The draft minutes of SC12 were made available as html and pdf . The minutes were not discussed in any detail. However, Zuheir Altamimi had previously pointed out that under Topic 5, the report of the WG on Standards and Conventions, which was provided by Erricos Pavlis, was not correct. It was agreed that Zuheir Altamimi and Erricos Pavlis would provide a correction.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-1: Zuheir Altamimi and Erricos Pavlis will provide a modified report of the WG on Standards and Conventions for Topic 5 of the minutes of the SC-12 to Hans-Peter Plag, who will then update the minutes accordingly. Responsible: Zuheir Altamimi, Erricos Pavlis, Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2008-04-15.

under The participants were asked to identify other necessary changes and/or corrections. No further points were raised and the minutes were accepted under the condition of AI GGOS-SC13-1.

Bernd Richter raised the point that in general the minutes prepared by Hans-Peter Plag were rather detailed and long and suggested to consider to provide shorter minutes. Hans-Peter Plag explained that he had positive feedback on the detailed minutes particularly from those not at a meeting. Obviously the minutes were used by those who could not come to get an overview of what was discussed at the meeting. Srinivas Bettadpur supported the longer and more detailed minutes. It was consensus to continue to prepare detailed minutes.

3 Action Item Status

The list of action items from the SC-11 meeting was available as html and pdf . A list of all open action items from previous meetings was available as html and pdf .

Markus Rothacher briefly went through the action items from the last Steering Committee meeting, stating initially that most AIs were closed. Concerning

Action Item GGOS-SC12-2: The EC will identify a few candidates to chair the WG on satellite missions and will subject these to a vote in the Steering Committee by e-mail. Responsible: Executive Committee, Deadline: 2008-01-31,

he stated that the EC had discussed candidates for the Chair of the WG on Satellite missions, and he had contacted several candidates. However, no one had agreed to be the chair.

Hans-Peter Plag reported that following up

Action Item GGOS-SC12-3: Hans-Peter Plag will send out the draft charter for the GGOS GEO WG to the current members for comments. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2008-01-31,

he had iterated the draft WG mission to the WG members, and received one comment from Bernd Richter. This comment had been clarified between the two, and the mission statement remained the same as shown during the SC12.

The AIs GGOS-SC12-7 to GGOS-SC12-9 were delayed due to other work.

With respect to

Action Item GGOS-SC12-12: Markus Rothacher and Ruth Neilan will provide to the SC a number of examples of vision and mission statements of other observing systems. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Ruth Neilan, Deadline: 2008-02-29,

Michael Pearlman and Hans-Peter Plag had provided some examples of vision statements of well known companies at the Retreat.

Concerning

Action Item GGOS-SC12-14: Richard Gross will draft a rationale and scope for a 2008 GGOS Science Workshop including science questions to be addressed by this workshop and send this to the EC for discussion. Responsible: Richard Gross, Deadline: 2008-02-29,

Richard Gross reported ...

Action items from other previous meetings were not discussed.

4 Brief Reports from the GGOS Chairs

Markus Rothacher presented the GGOS Chairs' report (see pdf ). He summarized the activities since SC12, which focused mostly on the preparation of the Retreat, the Stakeholder Conference and the White Papers for the new components. He also provided a list of the future meetings, which included SC14 at the Fall AGU meeting.

5 WG Chairs (Satellite mission, Outreach)

As already discussed under Topic 3, Markus Rothacher had not been able to solicit candidates for the chair of the WG on satellite missions. An additional candidate was suggested, and this resulted in

Action Item GGOS-SC13-2: Markus Rothacher will contact Dr. Radboud Koop (R.Koop@nivr.nl) and clarify whether he would be available as chair of the WG on Satellite Missions. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Deadline: 2008-04-15.

With respect to the WG on Outreach and User Linkage, Markus Rothacher informed that Bente Lilja Bye no longer is available as chair. In the subsequent discussion, it was suggested by Chris Rizos and Hermann Drewes to consider to merge the IAG Outreach Branch with the GGOS WG, and Hermann Drewes considered it possible for Josef Adams tro do the work if he would get an additional person to work with. Hans-Peter Plag pointed out that GGOS actually had a working WG, and did not consider it a good idea to abondon the WG. He rather suggested to ask the chair of the IAG Outreach Branch, Josef Adams, to become in addition the chair of the GGOS WG. This would give him access to more resources and he would be able to delegate some of the work in the IAG Outreach Branch to the GGOS WG. It was agreed:

Action Item GGOS-SC13-3: Hermann Drewes will contact Josef Adams and discuss with him how the IAG Outreach Branch and the GGOS WG on Outreach and User linkage can be best coordinated and he will ask for suggestions for a chair for the GGOS WG. One option for the chair could be Josef Adams himself. Responsible: Hermann Drewes, Deadline: 2008-04-15.

Zuheir Altamimi pointed out that there is an IAG Newsletter and suggested that GGOS should have a permanent contribution to this Newsletter. There was general agreement that this should be done. No specific action item was agreed. Hans-Peter Plag mentioned that the GGOS-UNR Web Page already has a News-Page, which provides some information on and links to recent activities and events.

6 Charter of the GGOS WG on GEO Relations

The draft charter for the WG on GEO Relations was made available at the WG's web page . This charter was accepted without changes.

7 GGOS2020 Strategy Document

The Version 0.18 of the GGOS 2020 Reference Document was made available prior to the meeting at the GGOS 2020 web page . Chris Rizos asked about the current plan for the finalization of the document. Hans-Peter Plag sketched the following plan: Depending on the reaction of the ADC to the document, it could be an option to try to get the document distributed to the GEO Members and to get a resolution/endorsement on the agenda of the GEO Plenary in November 2008. The following action items emerged:

Action Item GGOS-SC13-4: Chris Rizos and Hermann Drewes will ensure that the IAG Executive Committee comments on the V0.18 of the GGOS 2020 Reference Document and will provide the comments to the editors, Hans-Peter Plag and Michael Pearlman. Responsible: Chris Rizos, Hermann Drewes, Deadline: 2008-04-28.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-5: Markus Rothacher, Chris Rizos and Hermann Drewes will ensure that the IAG Executive Committee provides a list of organizations to be included in the external hearing on the GGOS 2020 Reference Document to the editors, Hans-Peter Plag and Michael Pearlman. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Chris Rizos, Hermann Drewes, Deadline: 2008-05-02.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-6: Hans-Peter Plag and Michael Pearlman will prepare a version V0.19 based on the input from the lead authors and the IAG Executive Committee and make this available for external hearing. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Michael Pearlman, Deadline: 2008-05-02.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-7: Hans-Peter Plag and Michael Pearlman will prepare a version V1.0 based on the input from the external hearing and ensure that all edits are accepted by the chapter writing teams. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Michael Pearlman, Deadline: 2008-07-15.

Concerning the Strategy Document, it was agreed after a brief discussion, that Markus Rothacher would prepare a proposal to the IAG Executive Committee.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-8: Markus Rothacher together with the GGOS EC will prepare a proposal for the preparation of the GGOS 2020 Strategy Document including draft contents, suggested authors, resources needed, and when and how to get it done, and he will present this proposal after iteration in the GGOS EC to IAG EC. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Deadline: 2008-04-10.

Concerning the authors, Hans-Peter Plag suggested to include the lead authors of the GGOS 2020 chapters in order to ensure a link and consistency between the GGOS 2020 Reference Document and the GGOS 2020 Strategy Document.

8 Recommendations of the GGOS Retreat

Markus Rothacher stated that there were no other recommendations from the Retreat to the SC except for the establishment of the new components, and the changes of the ToR with respect to vision and mission statements and additional changes required in the objectives and task list and the rest of the ToR.

9 GGOS Stakeholder Conference

Markus Rothacher summarized the conclusions of the Retreat by stating that one Stakeholder Conference is not considered enough and that GGOS rather should hold a number of potentially smaller events co-located with appropriate meetings of relevant stakeholders. For the near future, events at the next CEOS Plenary, a GEO Workshop on GEOSS Architecture in London, and the anticipate GEO/IGOS Symposium are to be considered.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-9: Markus Rothacher and Hans-Peter Plag will prepare a membership application for GGOS membership in CEOS and submit this application in time before the CEOS Plenary in November 2008. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2008-06-30.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-10: Markus Rothacher will follow up the preparation of a Stakeholder event at the CEOS Plenary meeting in November 2008 in South Africa. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Deadline: 2008-06-30.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-11: Hans-Peter Plag will follow up the option to have a Stakeholder event co-locate with the GEO Workshop on GEOSS Architecture in December 2008 in London Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2008-04-30.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-12: Hans-Peter Plag will follow up the option to have a Stakeholder event at the anticipate GEO/IGOS symposium to be held in the time frame October 2008 to February 2009. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2008-06-30.

10 CfP for Coordinating Office

Markus Rothacher stated that this topic had been discussed sufficiently during the Retreat. All pending decisions were made, and all action items set.

11 CfP for GGOS Portal

Markus Rothacher explained that the CfP for the Portal was joint with the CfP for the Coordination Office, and no further discussion was needed.

12 Future modifications of the GGOS ToRs

Hans-Peter Plag presented the vision statement that had emerged from the bubble group (see pdf ): Empowering with geodesy the advancement of society , and he explaining each segment of the statement. Empowering is what GGOS does, and it does it with geodesy. It is very progressive and advancing (see, for example, the impact of GNSS on science and society), and it is very broad: it does it for the whole society. The vision statement was accepted by the participants

X(RG) presented the revised mission statement (see pdf ): GGOS is the global observing system of the IAG, its flagship component that advances the use of geodetic observing methods for Earth system and planetary science and applications. GGOS accomplishes its mission by defining the geodetic infrastructure that is needed to meet scientific and societal requirements, by advocating for the establishment and maintenance of this geodetic infrastructure, by coordinating interaction between the IAG Services, Commissions, and stakeholders, by improving the quality of and accessibility to geodetic observations and products, and by educating the scientific community about the benefits of geodetic research and the public about the fundamental role that geodesy plays in society. The mission statement was accepted by the participants.

Markus Rothacher discussed changes necessary because of the new elements. He pointed out that the description of the new components needs to be updated, and that the objective and task description needs to be made more concise.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-13: Markus Rothacher together with the GGOS EC will prepare a draft of the modified GGOS ToR taking into account all necessary changes resulting from the new vision and mission statements and the new components (see also AIs GGOS-R2008-13 and -14). Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Deadline: 2008-06-30.

13 Any other business

There was no specific other business. However, Chris Rizos asked about the procedure for the finalization of the GGOS 2020 document. Hans-Peter Plag explained the procedure (see also Topic 7). Hermann Drewes informed the participant that for publication, a book in the IAG Springer Series would be considered.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-14: Hermann Drewes will contact Springer to discuss the conditions for publishing the GGOS 2020 Reference Document as a book in the Springer Series of IAG Proceedings. Responsible: Hermann Drewes, Deadline: 2008-05-31.

14 Summary of Action Items

Action Item GGOS-SC13-1: Zuheir Altamimi and Erricos Pavlis will provide a modified report of the WG on Standards and Conventions for Topic 5 of the minutes of the SC-12 to Hans-Peter Plag, who will then update the minutes accordingly. Responsible: Zuheir Altamimi, Erricos Pavlis, Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2008-04-15.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-2: Markus Rothacher will contact Dr. Radboud Koop (R.Koop@nivr.nl) and clarify whether he would be available as chair of the WG on Satellite Missions. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Deadline: 2008-04-15.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-3: Hermann Drewes will contact Josef Adams and discuss with him how the IAG Outreach Branch and the GGOS WG on Outreach and User linkage can be best coordinated and he will ask for suggestions for a chair for the GGOS WG. One option for the chair could be Josef Adams himself. Responsible: Hermann Drewes, Deadline: 2008-04-15.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-4: Chris Rizos and Hermann Drewes will ensure that the IAG Executive Committee comments on the V0.18 of the GGOS 2020 Reference Document and will provide the comments to the editors, Hans-Peter Plag and Michael Pearlman. Responsible: Chris Rizos, Hermann Drewes, Deadline: 2008-04-28.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-5: Markus Rothacher, Chris Rizos and Hermann Drewes will ensure that the IAG Executive Committee provides a list of organizations to be included in the external hearing on the GGOS 2020 Reference Document to the editors, Hans-Peter Plag and Michael Pearlman. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Chris Rizos, Hermann Drewes, Deadline: 2008-05-02.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-6: Hans-Peter Plag and Michael Pearlman will prepare a version V0.19 based on the input from the lead authors and the IAG Executive Committee and make this available for external hearing. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Michael Pearlman, Deadline: 2008-05-02.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-7: Hans-Peter Plag and Michael Pearlman will prepare a version V1.0 based on the input from the external hearing and ensure that all edits are accepted by the chapter writing teams. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Michael Pearlman, Deadline: 2008-07-15.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-8: Markus Rothacher together with the GGOS EC will prepare a proposal for the preparation of the GGOS 2020 Strategy Document including draft contents, suggested authors, resources needed, and when and how to get it done, and he will present this proposal after iteration in the GGOS EC to IAG EC. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Deadline: 2008-04-10.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-9: Markus Rothacher and Hans-Peter Plag will prepare a membership application for GGOS membership in CEOS and submit this application in time before the CEOS Plenary in November 2008. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2008-06-30.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-10: Markus Rothacher will follow up the preparation of a Stakeholder event at the CEOS Plenary meeting in November 2008 in South Africa. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Deadline: 2008-06-30.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-11: Hans-Peter Plag will follow up the option to have a Stakeholder event co-locate with the GEO Workshop on GEOSS Architecture in December 2008 in London Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2008-04-30.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-12: Hans-Peter Plag will follow up the option to have a Stakeholder event at the anticipate GEO/IGOS symposium to be held in the time frame October 2008 to February 2009. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2008-06-30.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-13: Markus Rothacher together with the GGOS EC will prepare a draft of the modified GGOS ToR taking into account all necessary changes resulting from the new vision and mission statements and the new components (see also AIs GGOS-R2008-13 and -14). Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Deadline: 2008-06-30.

Action Item GGOS-SC13-14: Hermann Drewes will contact Springer to discuss the conditions for publishing the GGOS 2020 Reference Document as a book in the Springer Series of IAG Proceedings. Responsible: Hermann Drewes, Deadline: 2008-05-31.

End of Minutes