Tsukuba '99 Report

THE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON GPS

Application to Earth Sciences and Interaction with Other Space Geodetic Techniques

18-22 October 1999
International Convention Center
Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

This symposium was the largest "GPS geodesy" conference of 1999, and one of the biggest such events ever held in the Asian region. Over 370 participants learned of the tremendous progress being made in ultra-high precision GPS techniques for a range of applications: from the "traditional" measurement of crustal motion to the new applications in meteorology. Over 300 oral and poster presentations were delivered in 14 separate conference sessions:

Permanent GPS arrays, current and future (convenors: Yehuda Bock & Yuki Hatanaka)

GPS meteorology: atmospheric sounding with ground and space-based GPS receivers (convenors: Bill Kuo, Mike Bevis, Yoaz Bar-Sever, Randolph Ware, Nobutaka Mannoji & Toshitaka Tsuda)
A new view of the tectonic deformations in the Pacific and Asia using space geodetic techniques (convenors: Shui-Beih Yu, Jeff Freymueller, Takao Tabei & Minoru Kasahara)
Determination and interpretation of global and regional plate motions deduced from space geodetic techniques (convenors: Kristine Larson & Kosuke Heki)
Combination of space geodetic techniques for global dynamics and reference frames (convenors: Thomas Herring, Zuheir Altamimi, Shigeru Matsuzaka & Yukio Takahashi)
Space and terrestrial techniques for advanced crustal deformation research (convenors: Will Prescott, Frank Webb, Seiichi Shimada & Takeshi Matsushima)
Application of GPS for monitoring earth's environmental and global sea level change (convenors: Erik Ivins & Yoshiaki Tamura)
Application of GPS for ionospheric research and impact of solar maximum for GPS measurements (convenors: Richard Langley & Akinori Saito)
Modeling of the crustal process based on GPS measurements (convenors: Paul Segall, Manabu Hashimoto & Takeshi Sagiya)
Theory and methodology of GPS and other space techniques (convenors: Peter Teunissen & Peiliang Xu)
Kinematic application of GPS technology to earth sciences (convenors: Oscar Colombo & Tetsuichiro Yabuki)
Issues of data quality management and hardware/software technological problems in GPS (convenors: James Davis, Peng Fang & Akio Yasuda)
GPS for gravity field and geoid determination (convenors: Rene Forsberg & Yoichi Fukuda)
Innovative developments in GPS geodesy in support of the earth sciences (convenors: Chris Rizos & Shigeru Nakao)

The symposium was truly international, with a total of almost 200 people attending from 40 countries apart from the host nation. The Australian representation was a respectable 11 persons.

The conference was an ideal opportunity for Japanese geodesists to present results pertinent to the North West Pacific region, and in particular to highlight the value of the GEONET facility for geodetic research. (GEONET is the nationwide network of over 900 permanent GPS receivers operated by the Geographical Survey Institute of Japan.) One of the highlights was the session on "GPS meteorology", where results of and future plans for the extraction of water vapour parameters from measurements made by ground-based and space-based GPS receivers were presented. In addition, the Third International Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Space Geodynamics (APSG) program was held.

Several tutorial sessions on GPS topics were offered to participants, as well as scientific tours to a number of research institutes in the cities of Tsukuba and Kashima. The symposium proceedings will be published in the new year, in a special volume of the journal Earth, Planets and Science (a refereed journal of the Japanese Societies for Earth & Planetary Sciences).

Three members of the SNAP group attended the symposium: Chris Rizos, Shaowei Han and Linlin Ge. Six papers were presented:

FU, W.X., HAN, S., RIZOS, C., KNIGHT, M., & FINN, A. Some results on the nonparametric statistics of ionospheric scintillation from GPS data collected in the equatorial zone.
GE, L., HAN, S., & RIZOS, C. Interpolation of GPS results incorporating geophysical and InSAR information.
GE, L., HAN, S., & RIZOS, C. GPS seismometers with up to 20Hz sampling rate.
HAN, S., & RIZOS, C. Airborne GPS kinematic positioning and its application to oceanographic mapping.
RIZOS, C., HAN, S., & CHEN, H.Y. Regional-scale multiple reference stations for real-time carrier phase-based GPS positioning: a correction generation algorithm.
RIZOS, C., HAN, S., GE, L., CHEN, H.Y., HATANAKA, Y., & ABE, K. Low-cost densification of permanent GPS networks for natural hazard mitigation: first tests on GSI's Geonet network.

We would like to thank our Japanese hosts for the excellent organisation and hospitality, which made this an enjoyable and scientifically fruitful symposium.


Fritz Brunner, Chris Rizos and Shaowei Han	Linlin Ge, Shaowei Han and Chris Rizos


Toshiaki Tsuji and Peter Teunissen	Yuki Hatanaka and Linlin Ge