*************************************************************************** IERS Message No. 6 March 19, 2001 *************************************************************************** IERS' Global Geophysical Fluids Center (GGFC) and Special Bureaus Websites Going to Business The Global Geophysical Fluids Center has made public its official Internet Website <http//bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov/ggfc/>, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, with an Europe mirror site in Strasburg, France <http//ggfc.u-strasbg.fr> (an Asian mirror site is under preparation). The seven Special Bureaus (SB) can be readily linked. The SBs, under the coordination of GGFC, have the responsibility of supporting, facilitating, and providing services to the worldwide research community, in areas related to the variations in Earth rotation, gravitational field and geocenter motion that are caused by mass transport in the geophysical fluids. The geophysical fluids of the Earth system include the atmosphere, ocean, solid Earth, and core, and geophysical processes associated with tides and hydrological cycles. The time variation of angular momenta and the related torques, gravitational coefficients, and geocenter shift will be computed for all geophysical fluids based on global observational data, and/or products from state-of-the-art models some of which assimilate such data. The computed quantities, algorithm and data formats will be standardized. The results will be archived and made available to the scientific research community. The SBs will maintain individual data archives and services. The Websites are the main conduits for these services. The present organization of the Global Geophysical Fluids Center is: GGFC Head: Benjamin F. Chao Space Geodesy Branch, Code 926 NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA e-mail: <chao@bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov> SPECIAL BUREAUS ATMOSPHERE (SBA) Head: D. A. Salstein Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER) OCEANS (SBO) Head: R. S. Gross Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) TIDES (SBT) Head: R. D. Ray GSFC Laboratory For Terrestrial Physics (LTP) HYDROLOGY (SBH) Head: C. R. Wilson University of Texas (UT) MANTLE (SBM) Head: B. F. Chao GSFC Laboratory For Terrestrial Physics (LTP) CORE (SBC) Head: V. Dehant Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) GRAVITY/GEOCENTER (SBGG) Head: M. M. Watkins Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) For more detail please see: Chao, B. F., V. Dehant, R. S. Gross, R. D. Ray, D. A. Salstein, M. M. Watkins, and C. R. Wilson, Space geodesy monitors mass transports in global geophysical fluids, EOS, Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union, 81, 247-250, May 30, 2000. A PDF file of this article is posted on the GGFC Website (see above), courtesy of AGU. Hard-copy reprints are also available by contacting any of the people above. Several GGFC business meetings (some open to public) as well as co-sponsored technical special sessions have been held at international conferences. The upcoming open meeting will be held at EGS2001 Assembly in Nice (on Thursday, March 29, 2001, 6 pm, Room M11 of Congress Center), in association with Geodesy Symposium G3, "Time variable geodetic parameters and global geophysical fluids processes". --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao Head, Space Geodesy Branch, Code 926 NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA phone: 301-614-6104, fax: 301-614-6099 e-mail: chao@bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov ***************************************************************************