The International GNSS Service (IGS): Preparations for the Coming Decade

The International GNSS Service (IGS) is an international activity with more than 200 participating organisations in over 80 countries with a track record of more than 13 years of successful service. The IGS is a service of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) and primarily supports the scientific research based on, and the analysis of, long-term, highly precise and accurate Earth observations using the technologies of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), primarily the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). The mission of the IGS, recently revised at the IGS Strategic Planning Meeting held in December 2006, is “to provide the highest-quality GNSS data and products in support of the terrestrial reference frame, Earth rotation, Earth observation and research, positioning, navigation and timing and other applications that benefit society”. The IGS will continue to support the IAG’s initiative to coordinate cross-technique global geodesy for the next decade – via the development of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS), which focuses on the needs of global geodesy at the mm-level. The IGS activities are fundamental to scientific disciplines related to climate, weather, sea level change, and space weather. However, the IGS also supports many other applications, including precise navigation, machine automation, and surveying and mapping. This paper will discuss the IGS Strategic Plan and future directions of the globally-coordinated ~400 station IGS network, tracking data and information products, and outline the concerns of a few of its numerous working groups and pilot projects as the world anticipates a truly multi-system GNSS in the coming decade.