IERS Message No. 8

[central_bureau at iers.org]

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IERS Message No. 8                                           April 23, 2001
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IERS Conventions Product Center

Beginning 1 January 2001, the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures
(BIPM) and the U. S. Naval Observatory (USNO) are working together to
provide the Conventions Product Center (CPC) of the International Earth
Rotation Service (IERS).


The CPC has committed itself to the IERS to 

(1) Edit the IERS Conventions, continuously maintaining the documents in
electronic form and making available an updated printed version at the
request of the Directing Board,
(2) Maintain software in electronic form compatible with the IERS
Conventions,
(3) Examine the consistency of the procedures used by the IERS analysis
centers with the adopted conventions and study the impact of possible
inconsistencies on the IERS products.

The first goal of the CPC is to complete the new edition of the IERS
Conventions, known as Conventions 2000. Following this, efforts will be
devoted to implement facilities related to the electronic access including
mirror sites, and techniques to update the electronic version and software.

Next, the CPC intends to review the content and presentation of the IERS
Conventions and how it interacts with the IERS community. Over the
following years, in line with task 3 above, it is expected that studies
examining the consistency of the procedures used by the IERS analysis
centers will be carried out in collaboration with other IERS components.
The CPC will promote such studies and proposals will be welcome.


Individuals participating in the CPC are
USNO: 
Dr. Dennis D. McCarthy, co-director of the CPC, representative to the
IERS Directing Board for 2001-2003 (dmc at maia.usno.navy.mil)
Dr. Thomas Johnson
Mr. Brian Luzum

BIPM:
Dr. Gerard Petit, co-director of the CPC (gpetit at bipm.org)
Dr. Elisa Felicitas Arias (farias at bipm.org)
Dr. Peter Wolf (pwolf at bipm.org)

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