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IERS Message No. 63                                    November 11, 2004
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IERS Global Geophysical Fluids Center (GGFC) in changing guard

After 7 years of service and at the turn of the 4-year term for the IERS
infrastructure, Ben Chao (of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) is
stepping down from the position of the Head of IERS' Global Geophysical
Fluids Center (GGFC). The IERS Directing Board approved his
recommendation that a new Head would be selected within GGFC among the
existing Special Bureau (SB) members, effective January 1, 2005.

A component of IERS, the GGFC has been providing data services to the
Earth sciences community since its establishment on January 1, 1998.
Coordinated by GGFC, eight SBs have become in operation since then; they
are SBs for Atmosphere (David Salstein, Chair), for Oceans (Richard
Gross), for Hydrology (Clark Wilson), for Tides (Richard Ray), for
Mantle (Ben Chao), for Cores (Tim van Hoolst), for Gravity/Geocenter
(Mike Watkins), for Loading (Tonie van Dam, Hans-Peter Plag, co-Chairs).

After some productive deliberation in GGFC, Tonie van Dam (of the
European Center for Geodynamics and Seismology, Luxembourg) was
appointed unanimously as the new GGFC Head. She will continue to serve
as the co-Chair for the SB for Loading; while Ben Chao will continue to
serve as the Chair of the SB for Mantle. We would like to commend Tonie
for stepping to the plate, congratulate her, and wish her the best!

Meanwhile, major activities that are underway under GGFC include:

(1) New format and interactive web services using XML is being developed
and implemented at Goddard, in parallel and in full interaction with
similar activities in IERS Central Bureau at BKG, Frankfurt.

(2) A "renovation" of the data format, documentation, and computing
algorithm is to improve the accuracy of the data products and service
functions now existing at the SBs, especially the SB for Atmosphere, but
certainly including SBs for Oceans and Hydrology. This activity is
supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Decartes grant under
Veronique Dehant.

(3) A pilot project is being spearheaded by the SB for Loading to
compute and model the vertical motions at the geodetic stations,
initially for the seasonal mass loading terms. This project has the goal
of contributing to an improvement or a next level of sophistication in
the next implementation of the International Terrestrial Reference
Frame.


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