New Commission Structures for 2011-2015

At its most recent Executive Committee meeting on 5^th December 2011 in San Francisco, USA, the IAG's new commission structure was finalised. The Commissions and their Sub-Commissions are long-lived components of the IAG. Each Commission, at the beginning of the four-year term, establishes a number of Working Groups and Study Groups. Details of all components, together with their terms of reference and work programmes are provided in the Geodesist's Handbook. The following is a summary of the Commission and SC structures:

Commission 1 ‘Reference Frames'

• SC1.1 Coordination of Space Techniques

• SC1.2 Global Reference Frames

• SC1.3 Regional Reference Frames: SC1.3a Europe, SC1.3b South & Central America, SC1.3c North America, SC1.3d Africa, SC1.3e Asia-Pacific, SC1.3f Antarctica

• SC1.4 Interaction of Celestial and Terrestrial Reference Frames

Commission 2 ‘Gravity Field'

• SC2.1 Gravimetry & Gravity Networks

• SC2.2 Spatial & Temporal Gravity Field & Geoid Modelling

• SC2.3 Dedicated Satellite Gravity Missions

• SC2.4 Regional Geoid Determination: SC2.4a Europe, SC2.4b South America, SC2.4c North & Central America, SC2.4d Africa, SC2.4e Asia-Pacific, SC2.4f Antarctica

• SC2.5 Satellite Altimetry

• SC2.6 Gravity & Mass Displacements

Commission 3 ‘Earth Rotation & Geodynamics'

• SC3.1 Earth Tides & Geodynamics

• SC3.2 Crustal Deformation: SC3.2a Global Crustal Deformation, SC3.2b Regional Crustal Deformation

• SC3.3 Earth Rotation & Geophysical Fluids

• SC3.4 Cryospheric Deformation

• SC3.5 Tectonics & Earthquake Geodesy

Commission 4 ‘Positioning & Applications'

• SC4.1 Alternatives & Backups to GNSS

• SC4.2 Geodesy in Geospatial Mapping & Engineering

• SC4.3 Remote Sensing & Modelling of the Atmosphere

• SC4.4 Applications of Satellite & Airborne Imaging Systems

• SC4.5 High-precision GNSS

Further information on the work of the Commissions and of the Services will be provided in future GIM International reports.

The IAG at the Major Geoscience Conferences

Geodesy sessions are organised each year at the two major annual geoscience conferences. Most recently was the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union - the world's largest gathering of Earth and space scientists. The 2011 meeting (5^th to 9^th December) attracted more than 20,000 attendees with no less than 6,000 oral presentations and 12,000 poster presentations. There were 36 geodesy sessions covering 28 discipline topics. The 2012 meeting will be held from 6^th to 10^th December in San Francisco.

The other major annual conference is the European Geosciences Union General Assembly, which was last held from 4^th to 8^th April in Vienna, Austria. EGU 2011 attracted 10,725 scientists from 96 countries, with 4,333 oral presentations and 8,439 poster presentations spread across 707 sessions. The 2012 meeting is scheduled for 22^nd to 27^th April.

In the course of this year, the IAG will make a special effort to sponsor sessions for geodesists from the Asia-Pacific region at the Asia-Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) meeting (13^th to 17^th August) in Singapore. In 2011, AOGS featured 1,720 presentations and attracted 1,367 participants from 44 countries.

Major annual conferences such as these provide the IAG Executive Committee, governing boards of the Services, steering committees of the Commissions, and many other ad hoc groups with the opportunity to meet regularly and carry out the business of the IAG.