*************************************************************************** IERS Message No. 21 January 29, 2002 *************************************************************************** IERS/GGFC Special Bureau for Loading established On February 1, 2002, the Special Bureau for Loading (SBL) will be established by IERS under its Global Geophysical Fluids Center (GGFC), joining the seven existing Special Bureaus of GGFC. SBL is to promote, stimulate and coordinate work and progress towards a service providing information on Earth surface deformation and gravity variations due to surface mass loading. The SBL will provide in near real-time a consistent global solution data set describing at least the surface deformation, gravity signal and geocenter variations due to the various surface loading processes (beginning with atmospheric pressure and eventually including reliable models of non-tidal ocean loading and continental water mass variations) in reference frames relevant for direct comparison with geodetic observing techniques. For the special case of ocean tidal loading, the existing classical products will also be made available through the SBL. The SBL is co-chaired by T. van Dam (European Center for Geodynamics and Seismology, Luxembourg; <tvd@ecgs.lu>) and H.-P. Plag (Norwegian Mapping Authority; <plag@statkart.no>). Its members include: G. Blewitt (U. Nevada), J.-P. Boy (NASA Goddard), O. Francis (European Center for Geodynamics and Seismology), P. Gegout (U. Strasbourg), H. Kierulf (Norwegian Mapping Authority), T. Sato (Japan National Astronomical Observatory), H.G. Scherneck (Onsala Space Observatory), and J. Wahr (U. Colorado). To maintain a close tie with the present efforts being undertaken at IERS, Ex-officio members of the SBL also include the chairs of the existing Special Bureaus of GGFC: B. Chao, V. Dehant, R. Gross, R. Ray, D. Salstein, M. Watkins and C. Wilson (see <http://bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov/ggfc/>). The SBL will have its first workshop March 4-5, 2002, in Luxembourg to establish the scientific priorities and to work out an operational schedule. We plan to begin operational production of atmospheric derived loading effects by January 1, 2003. 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 *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************