Summary notes for the 10th IVS Directing Board meeting September 29, 2003 at Haystack Observatory notes by N. Vandenberg, October 20, 2003 edited October 21, October 28, November 3 Attending: Wolfgang Schlueter, Patrick Wallace, Harald Schuh, Axel Nothnagel, Zinovy Malkin, Yasuhiro Koyama, Alan Whitney, Chopo Ma, Ed Himwich, Kerry Kingham, Arthur Niell, Shigeru Matsuzaka, Bill Petrachenko, Nancy Vandenberg 1. Welcome Wolfgang Schlueter introduced Patrick Wallace, IAU representative to the IVS board. Wolfgang Schlueter noted that Harald Schuh was named as the new IAG representative to the IVS board, replacing James Campbell. 2. Reports 2.1 Chair (Wolfgang Schlueter) Since the previous meeting, papers were presented at the following meetings: EVN Directors meeting (May, in Noto), the 16th European VLBI meeting (May, in Leipzig), IAG General Assembly (July, in Sapporo). Next meetings to be supported are the ILRS workshop (October, in Koetzting), and the next EVN Directors meeting (December, in Dwingeloo). The board agreed that the position of elected representative for Analysis and Data Centers, currently held by Harald Schuh, should be replaced. The board unanimously voted that Zinovy Malkin will serve the remaining term. The board agreed that a new At Large member should be elected. The Chair will conduct an e-mail vote after the board meeting. Herman Drewes asked the 5 services to nominate 3 representatives to serve on IAG Commission I "Reference Frames". Chopo Ma agreed to serve the 4-year term as IVS representative. 2.2 Coordinating Center report (Nancy Vandenberg) Since the last meeting, the Annual Report for 2002 was published, and Newsletter issues for April and August. A discussion team was set up for the re-design of the IVS web site. Progress has been made on the structure of the site. Professional assistance is being provided by the graphics arts group at Goddard where the web site is hosted. The team working on the new color VLBI brochure has worked out an outline and started to gather images. The next step is to work on revising the old text. Gradual usage of Mark 5 disk systems is being coordinated. The usage plan for Mark 5 shows gradual changes to mostly full-time Mark 5 usage by April 2004. 2.3 Observing Program Committee report (Nancy Vandenberg) The observing program for 2004 is being worked out by the OPC. The amount and types of observing will be almost the same as that for 2003. Projections for evolution of the observing program require additional commitments of observing time by stations. Correlator efficiency is improving due to greater usage of Mark 5 systems. 2.4 Analysis Coordinator report (Axel Nothnagel) SINEX files are desired from other Analysis Centers; only GSFC provides them now. USNO needs to have a software update. OCCAM can provide only SINEX version 1.0, but 2.0 is needed to make the SINEX files. Responses to the time series of baseline lengths were received from GSFC, IAA, and BKG so far. Responses are due October 15. Markus Rothacher, IERS Analysis Coordinator, is excited about using the CONT02 data for combinations. A local ties workshop will be held October 23-24 in Matera. The goal is to have surveyors who have done co-locations and analysts to discuss methods. 2.5 Network Coordinator (Ed Himwich) Overall station performance data in 2002 shows ~12% station time loss, corresonding to about 24% data loss. Stations that observe the most have the least loss, presumably because they have more chance to streamline their operations. The most significant problems are RFI, antenna and receiver problems, track overwriting, and clocks. The TOW (Technical Operations Workshop) was held last week at Haystack. The 4-day format was new (it was 2.5 days last time). Mark 5 classes were offered for the first time. Response to the workshop was very positive. Errors in the final correlator UTC for geodetic solution's reference station go directly into the UT1-UTC results. The goal of the IVS Working Group 2 report is 2-3 micro-sec, which is the error about now. The clock rate is actually better now than in the WG2 requirements. 2.6 Technology Coordinator (Alan Whitney) A draft specification for e-VLBI is being distributed. David Lapsley is developing an experimental version. It will be submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force as an international standard, so it must stay within definitions already established. Approval will give credibility to e-VLBI. Mark 5B will be developed next; a prototype is expected by mid 2004, and replication possible 3 months later. Advantages of the Mark 5B unit are that no formatter is required, stations with VLBA formatters will be capable of 1 Gb/s recording, better phase cal extraction will be a system diagnostic, and the geodetic correlators can replace the station units. The station unit replacement capability will be available in about a year, phase cal extraction somewhat after that. Plans for e-VLBI development include a demonstration at the Internet2 meeting in October, using simultaneous data transfer from 7 VLBI stations simultaneously using David Lapsley's new RTP software. The last-mile issue is still very important. 2.7. Vision Paper 2010 (Alan Whitney, Arthur Niell) The board discussed the draft charter for the Working Group (WG3). The goal is to define a system for 2010 and beyond, and should have visionary ideas. The board voted to approve the charter and establish the IVS Working Group 3 VLBI2010. 3. Pilot Project Troposphere (Harald Schuh) A new IVS troposphere product was established and operational as of July 2003. Seven Analysis Centers have been contributing to this product. The report on the new product showed that there is a ~5 mm bias of VLBI with respect to IGS, with larger variations in summer. Current tasks are to understand the bias, get met sensor heights, and compare gradients. Arthur Niell and Harald Schuh will work on specifications for what is needed from the met sensor location and calibration, which should be justified by analysis requirements. 4. Technology reports 4.1. K5 status report (Yasuhiro Koyama) The K5 system will be used to test e-VLBI data transfer for a 24-hour session next month. Two sessions with Kashima34 will be recorded with the K5 system and then transferred to Haystack for recording on Mark 5. 4.2. S2 status report (Bill Petrachenko) As of the end of August, no more support for VLBI is being provided by Canadian Space Agency. No innovations are possible now. We would like a sustainable S2 program for the future. Recorders need service and upgrades, but that does not seem possible unless the recorders returned to the correlator as CSA decommissions can be used for spare parts. The 6th DAS is being prepared for shipment to Svetloe. It will be loaned to IAA for participation in the IVS E3 sessions next year. The 7th DAS is owned by Wayne Cannon and is at his lab. The geodetic program at Natural Resources Canada is under an arms length review for a 6 month period. The review will start soon. 5. Meeting reports 5.1 IAG Sapporo report (Harald Schuh) The IAG Executive Committee for 2003-7 includes Bureau officials, Commission presidents, services representatives, outreach, at large, and the past president. The new web site is www.iag-aig.org (hosted in Budapest). Decisions taken include establishment of the IGGOS project and establishment of an inter-commission committee. The next IAG Scientific Assembly is in 2005 August in Australia. The new chair of IGGOS is Chris Reigber, secretary is Hermann Drewes. 5.2 FAGS meeting (Harald Schuh) The future of FAGS is uncertain. Only innovative ideas can be funded by ICSU (International Council for Science), so the operational services of FAGS may not qualify. 5.3 IAU meeting report (Chopo Ma) In Sydney, Joint Discussion 16 was devoted to ICRS and ICRF issues. IAU is reorganized: Veronique Dehant is the chair of Commission 19, Earth Rotation, with a proposed new charter and title. The new charter emphasizes collaboration with geodetic and Earth rotation services. The Working Group on the ICRF would remain in existence to continue 1) to finish ICRF-Extension 2 and 2) the observing program within IVS leading to the next realization of the CRF. An open question for the future is how to connect ICRF2 to GAIA observations. Patrick Wallace reported on Division 1 Fundamental Astronomy. The Standards of Fundamental Astronomy (SOFA) board will be under Commission 19. At the Joint Discussion two Working Groups were set up: 1) Precession, to set up a consistent model, chaired by James Hilton of USNO, and 2) Nomenclature, to work with almanac groups, chaired by Nicole Capitaine. The Working Group on the future of UTC is chaired by Dennis McCarthy of USNO. 5.4 16th European meeting report (Wolfgang Schlueter) The meeting was held in Leipzig in May. Proceedings are ready to be published. Next meeting will be 2005 spring in Noto. 6. General Meeting The theme of the next General Meeting was discussed, with the idea of focusing on visions and future prospects. The meeting title was decided: Today's Results and Tomorrow's Vision. The Program Committee for the General Meeting was appointed. 7. Other business The next e-VLBI workshop will be held in Kashima, Japan, in 2004 September or October. The next Directing Board meeting will be February 8, 2004, the Sunday before the start of the General Meeting, in Ottawa.