Draft (V1.1) Minutes of the 3rd ESEAS-RI WP2 Meeting

Place: Puertos del Estado, Madrid, Spain
Date: 12-13 February 2004




Minutes written by Hans-Peter Plag (Version of 20 February 2004).

Participants:


Hans-Peter Plag (HPP), NMA, (Coordinator, Task leader 2.4)
Per Knudsen (PK), KMS, (WP3 leader)
Marzenna Sztobryn (MSZ), IMGW
Dov Rosen (DR), IOLR, (WP4 leader)
Belen Martin Miguez (BMM), PE
Begona Perez Gomez (BPG), PE, (Task leader 1.4)
Richard Bingley (RB), UNOTT, (WP2 leader, Task leader 1.1 + 2.8)
Norman Teferle (NT), UNOTT, (Task leader 2.5)
Halfdan Pascal Kierulf (HPK), NMA, (Task leader 2.1 + 2.3)
Bojan Cernac (BC), EARS
Coskun Demir (CD), GCM, (Task leader 2.7)
Cristina Garcia (CG), ROA
Damia Gomis (DG), UIB
Jorge Garate (JG), ROA
Jose Martin Davila (JMD), ROA
Enrique Alvarez Fanjul (EAF), PE
Ryszard Zdunek (RZ), SRC, (Task leader 4.4)
Tilo Schoene (TIS), GFZ Potsdam, (Chair of the IGS TIGA WG)
Nenad Leder (NL), HHI
Angela Aragon Angel (AAA), UPC
Raul Orus Perez (ROP), UPC
Leszek J. Jaworski (LJJ), SRC
Juan Jose Martinez-Benjamin (JJMB), UPC
Raul Orus Perez (ROP), UPC
Angela Aragon Angel (AAA), UPC


Agenda:

  1    Task 2.6: Status and plans for absolute gravity measurements,
       with a review of the requirements for an absolute gravity station
       (if additional measurements to those described in the DoW are planned).
  2    Minutes of the last WP2 meeting
  3    Review of action items from the minutes of the last WP2
       meeting (WP2/WG2-2-1 to WP2/WG2-2-15)
       and action items relevant to WP4 from the minutes of the second
       Project Team meeting (PT-2-9 and PT-2-18).
  4    Task 2.3 (and Task 2.1): Status of CGPS Data Server, links to the
            overall server, site documentation, status of test computations,
            further progress towards operational processing and processing of
            past data
  5    Task 2.5 (and Task 2.2): What is still missing, what do we want from
            Task 2.3, what additional parameters do we need  (an update on
            Task 2.4 will be included here), how to organise the work and the
            exchange of results
  6    Task 2.6: Status of database of absolute gravity measurements
  7    Task 2.7: Structure of information to be collected, status of
            what is available, further progress
  8    Summary of Action Items
  9    Date and place for the next meeting
1 Task 2.6: Status and plans for absolute gravity measurements, with a review of the requirements for an absolute gravity station (if additional measurements to those described in the DoW are planned).

Ryszard Zdunek reported that for the site in Poland, Wladislawowo, AG measurements are planned for May 2004 and also May 2005. The site is about 1 km from the tide gauge.

Hans-Peter Plag pointed out that for potential new AG sites, it is necessary to set up requirements. This can be solved as part of the ESEAS TEC.

Action Item WP2-3-1: Richard Bingley to initiate that requirements for AG sites are explicitly written down. This task should be carried out in the frame of the ESEAS TEC. Responsible: Richard Bingley, Deadline: 31 August 2004.

Rational: Clear requirements for AG sites should be made available on the ESEAS web page to aid ESEAS members in case they want to upgrade a ESEAS Observing Site for AG measurements.

2 Minutes of the last WP2 meeting

The minutes of the WP2-2 meeting were accepted with minor corrections.

3 Review of action items from the minutes of the last WP2 meeting (WP2/WG2-2-1 to WP2/WG2-2-15) and action items relevant to WP4 from the minutes of the second Project Team meeting (PT-2-9 and PT-2-18).

Richard Bingley reviewed the AIs of the second WP2 meeting (see pdf ).

The relevant AIs from PT-2 are:

Action Item PT-2-9: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf to split up the Version 1.0 strategy document of D2.1, into strategy and implementation. Responsible: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf, Deadline: 30 Nov 2003.

Rational: The strategy is expected not to change much in time while implementation will evolve over time. Therefore, the two parts should be separate documents.

Status of Action Item PT-2-9: Done.
Reported on 14/01/2004 by ESEAS Central Bureau.

Action Item PT-2-10: Juan Jose Martinez-Benjamin , UPC to add the results for their processing using GIPSY/OASIS II with PPP and JPL products to the ESEAS CGPS data a Responsible: Juan Jose Martinez-Benjamin, Deadline: 15 Dec 2003.

Status of Action Item PT-2-10: Delayed.
Reported on 22/01/2004 by Hans-Peter Plag.

Action Item PT-2-11: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf to make the SINEX files and solution time series files from all CGPS ACs available in the ESEAS CGPS DS. Responsible: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf, Deadline: 16 Nov 2003.

Rational: Making the SINEX files available will allow all Task group members to compare the results and to find reasons for the differences in the coordinates.

Status of Action Item PT-2-11: Done.
Reported on 20/01/2004 by ESEAS Central Bureau.

Action Item PT-2-12: All members of the Task 2.3 team to look at their own processing of the extended sample data set and investigate how their results may be improved, considering the results from the other members of the task T2.3 team. Responsible: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf, Deadline: 31 Dec 2003.

Rational: The differences in the solutions are too large to be accepted. One step is that every Analysis Centre tries to improve their own analysis procedure individually.

Status of Action Item PT-2-12: Unknown.
Reported on 22/01/2004 by Hans-Peter Plag.

Action Item PT-2-13: GCM and SRC to investigate any issues relating to their strategy for reference frame definition. Responsible: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf, Deadline: 30 Nov 2003.

Action Item PT-2-14: NMA and ROA to re-process the extended sample data set using GIPSY/OASIS II with PPP and IGS products and add these results to the ESEAS CGPS data archive Responsible: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf, Deadline: 30 Nov 2003.

Rational: The results produced by UNOTT using Bernese with IGS products in precise point positioning approach are considerable worse than all other solutions. It is not clear whether this is due to the IGS products or Bernese ppp or the combination of the two. Using GIPSY PPP with IGS, which seems to result in degraded time series, will help to clarify the situation.

Status of Action Item PT-2-14: Unknown.
Reported on 22/01/2004 by Hans-Peter Plag.

Action Item PT-2-15: UNOTT to make a conclusion regarding Bernese 4.2 with PPP and IGS products; Responsible: Richard Bingley, Deadline: 15 Dec 2003.

Status of Action Item PT-2-15: Unknown.
Reported on 22/01/2004 by Hans-Peter Plag.

Action Item PT-2-16: Hans-Peter Plag to provide input for the strategy definition document for Task 2.2. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 15 Dec 2003.

Status of Action Item PT-2-16: Unknown.
Reported on 22/01/2004 by Hans-Peter Plag.

Action Item PT-2-17: Coskun Demir and Hans-Peter Plag to define the master file for the levelling information. Responsible: Coskun Demir, Deadline: 15 Dec 2003.

Status of Action Item PT-2-17: Delayed. Most of it is done. Will be finalised during the WP1 meeting..
Reported on 22/01/2004 by Hans-Peter Plag.

Action Item PT-2-18: Coskun Demir to contact others projects such as the EULVN project to find out which an how levelling information is compiled. Responsible: Coskun Demir, Deadline: 15 Dec 2003.

Status of Action Item PT-2-18: Unknown.
Reported on 22/01/2004 by Hans-Peter Plag.

The status was reviewed and described in pdf .

4 Task 2.3 (and Task 2.1): Status of CGPS Data Server, links to the overall server, site documentation, status of test computations, further progress towards operational processing and processing of past data

Halfdan Pascal Kierulf discussed the status of Task 2.1 and Task 2.3 (see pdf ).

Part 1 of Task 2.1, i.e. the definition of the analysis strategy is finished in the initial version.

Showing a comparison of daily coordinate values of the different solution for the test sites reveals that the differences are of the order of several cm in all components. There was considerable discussion concerning the realisation of the reference frame, and it was pointed out that all solutions can be considered as approximations to ITRF and thus the differences seen indicate the accuracy achieveable in the determination of coordinates in ITRF.

Time series for the test sites show differences in the rate between GIPSY and GAMIT on the one side and Bernese on the other site. The differences in RMS should be investigated in more detail.

Norman Teferle pointed out that it is worthwhile to continue with Bernese ppp since IGS may go over to producing products with 5 minutes sample rate and Bernese 5.0 is in the pipeline.

There is campaign data for a station DUGK on the ESEAS DS, but it is not clear who provided the data. IBIZ and ANTA have good quality.

For WLAD, the data shows non-linear behavour in the horizontal component, which most likely is a seasonal cycle. This may indicate an instability of the pier, where the tide gauge and the GPS receiver are located.

Tilo Schoene presented the work done by TIGA, the IGS Pilot project (see pdf ).

Tilo Schoene justified the need to do a reprocessing in order to get high quality orbits and clocks. Richard Bingley asked how fra we can go back in time and use the available IGS products. Tilo Schoene assumes that from 2000, the products are reasonable.

Tilo Schoene clarified that the reprocessed orbits and clocks will not be made available for other users.

Norman Teferle presented the results for UNOTT in more detail. UNOTT uses Bernese 4.2 in ppp mode. In a first analysis, the results were considerably worse than those of the other ACs. Norman Teferle showed that after a recommputation of the Bernese ppp results, weighted rms has improved considerably (see pdf or ppt ).

The question to be answered soon is what global products should be used. This has to be ansered by the ACs.

Coskun Demir presented the work of GCM with respect to analysis of GPS data (see pdf or ppt ). GCM uses GAMIT. The reference frame is fixed by a large number (38) IGS stations, with main weight on European stations.

Raul Orus Perez presented the analysis work of UPC (see pdf ). UPC uses GIPSY. The results are comparable to the other GIPSY groups.

There was considerable discussion concerning the understanding of the JPL approach compared to regional network solutions.

Leszek J. Jaworski presented the analysis work at SRC (see pdf or ppt ). SRC uses Bernese with a regional network approach. SRC investigated the dependency of daily coordinates on different analysis parameters such as cut-off elevation. For these tests, SRC constrains Wettzell to 1 mm and this may cause problems if Wettzell has problems.

There was considerable discussion on whether IGS products can be used for processing also at earlier times. The quality of these products has increased over time and it is possible that e.g. in 2000 their quality is not sufficient. In order to investigate this, the following AI was agreed:

Action Item WP2-3-2: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf to organise a new analysis test comparison with CGPS data for Jan 2000 to present from approx. five stations. Responsible: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf, Deadline: 15 April 2004.

Rational: This experiment is done in order to check whether older IGS products are of sufficient quality to create ESEAS time series. At least GIPSY PPP and Bernese network solution should be compared, but preferably all ACs should participate. It could also be worthwhile to process all data for approx. five stations from Jan 2000 to present, since this would give a chance to determine and compare long-term rates.

It was also pointed out that for this test, stations should be selected which are also processed by TIGA. Therefore, the following was agreed:

Action Item WP2-3-3: Richard Bingley and Halfdan Pascal Kierulf together with TS, to select five stations for the test in AI WP2-3-2, which are also processed by TIGA. Responsible: Richard Bingley, Deadline: 15 March 2004.

With respect to documentation, Hans-Peter Plag presented briefly the ideas behind the ESEAS Data Server, the Data Portal and introduced the master files (see pdf ). As a result, the following AI was decided:

Action Item WP2-3-4: Hans-Peter Plag to send out the Master files for GPS site documentation to the GPS analysis groups for comments. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 28 February 2004.

5 Task 2.5 (and Task 2.2): What is still missing, what do we want from Task 2.3, what additional parameters do we need (an update on Task 2.4 will be included here), how to organise the work and the exchange of results

Halfdan Pascal Kierulf introduced the draft ESEAS time series format (see end of pdf ), which combines meta information with the data itself. The following AI was decided.

Action Item WP2-3-5: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf to send out the ESEAS Time series files for comments. Responsible: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf, Deadline: 28 February 2004.

6 Task 2.6: Status of database of absolute gravity measurements

Was already covered under TOP 1.

7 Task 2.7: Structure of information to be collected, status of what is available, further progress

Coskun Demir presented an overview of the status for this task (see ppt ).

8 Summary of Action Items

Action Item WP2-3-1: Richard Bingley to initiate that requirements for AG sites are explicitly written down. This task should be carried out in the frame of the ESEAS TEC. Responsible: Richard Bingley, Deadline: 31 August 2004.

Rational: Clear requirements for AG sites should be made available on the ESEAS web page to aid ESEAS members in case they want to upgrade a ESEAS Observing Site for AG measurements.

Action Item WP2-3-2: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf to organise a new analysis test comparison with CGPS data for Jan 2000 to present from approx. five stations. Responsible: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf, Deadline: 15 April 2004.

Rational: This experiment is done in order to check whether older IGS products are of sufficient quality to create ESEAS time series. At least GIPSY PPP and Bernese network solution should be compared, but preferably all ACs should participate. It could also be worthwhile to process all data for approx. five stations from Jan 2000 to present, since this would give a chance to determine and compare long-term rates.

Action Item WP2-3-3: Richard Bingley and Halfdan Pascal Kierulf together with TS, to select five stations for the test in AI WP2-3-2, which are also processed by TIGA. Responsible: Richard Bingley, Deadline: 15 March 2004.

Action Item WP2-3-4: Hans-Peter Plag to send out the Master files for GPS site documentation to the GPS analysis groups for comments. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 28 February 2004.

Action Item WP2-3-5: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf to send out the ESEAS Time series files for comments. Responsible: Halfdan Pascal Kierulf, Deadline: 28 February 2004.

9 Date and place for the next meeting

The next PT meeting in May 2004 will review the status of WP2 and decide whether another meeting is needed prior to the workshop in November 2004.

The meeting was closed by Hans-Peter Plag at 13:00.

End of Minutes