The Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern hosted the Symposium and Workshop of the International GNSS Service (IGS) with 230 attendees from 37 countries.
What is the IGS?
The International GNSS Service (IGS) provides, on an openly available basis, the highest-quality GNSS data, products and services in support of the terrestrial reference frame, Earth observation and research; positioning, navigation and timing; and other applications that benefit science and society.
The IGS began its activities in January 1994 by computing orbits for GPS satellites. However it soon became an interdisciplinary service providing models characterizing the ionosphere and troposphere, facilitating the comparison of remote high-precision clocks (e.g., realizing UTC) and defining standards in GNSS data processing. The main activity of the IGS today continues to support and facilitate access to the global terrestrial coordinate system allowing also highly demanding applications like measuring the sea level rise of 4.4mm/year. The activities of the IGS include nowadays not only the American GPS, but also the Russian GLONASS, the European Galileo and the Chinese Beidou constellations.
The first workshop of the IGS was hosted by the University of Bern in March 1993. So we are proud that the 30th anniversary of successful activities of the IGS was celebrated in Bern as well. In addition to the dedicated session held in Bern the IGS has hosted numerous other scientifically interesting presentations and posters have been presented. The 230 attendees from 37 countries enjoyed the event immensely and we hope to see you all here at the 50th anniversary of the IGS!
Many of the presentations given can be downloaded at https://igs.org/workshop/2024/
