***************************************************************************
IERS Message No. 52                                        January 20, 2004
***************************************************************************


IERS Working Group on Combination


The IERS Directing Board has established the IERS Working Group on
Combination (IERS WG 3). This Group will coordinate the steps towards a
more consistent, highly accurate set of IERS products. The major task of
the IERS WG will be the coordination of a new IERS Combination Pilot
Project (CPP) that is expected to start in Spring, 2004. Within the
framework of this program, a rigorous combination of "weekly" SINEX
files (containing station coordinates, Earth Orientation Parameters and,
possibly, quasar coordinates) from all space geodetic techniques is
planned.

The new products resulting from these combination procedures are
expected to replace a considerable part of the present IERS products in
the future, if the IERS CPP proves to be successful.

The chair of IERS WG 3 is the IERS Analysis Coordinator (Markus
Rothacher). WG 3 will begin its work in January 2004 with a progress
meeting in October 2004 and an evaluation workshop in 2005.

More details can be found at http://www.iers.org/iers/about/wg/wg3/ .

With best regards,
Markus Rothacher


***************************************************************************
IERS Messages are edited and distributed by the IERS Central Bureau.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please write to <central_bureau@iers.org>.
Archives: http://www.iers.org/iers/publications/messages/
***************************************************************************