Dear Colleagues,

We have the pleasure to announce that the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) in collaboration with the National Technical University of Athens, Greece (NTUA) is organizing an ILRS Technical Workshop entitled:

SLR Tracking of GNSS Constellations
50 Years of Satellite Geodesy and Geodynamics

George Veis

on the occasion of Prof. George Veis' 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his doctoral thesis, a document that laid the foundations of satellite geodesy.

The workshop will be held at the Metsovon Conference Center and the Metsovion Interdisciplinary Research Center (MIRC) of the NTUA, in Metsovo, Greece, from September 14 to 19, 2009.

We look forward to seeing you all in Metsovo!

Erricos C. Pavlis and Demitris Paradissis

Objectives

Excursion at Dodoni

• Overview of the two techniques with emphasis on their synergism
• Review of GNSS and SLR constellations & networks and current state of the art
• Satellite geodesy applied in geodynamics, POD, positioning, gravity, etc.
• Survey of the likely gains in science from SLR tracking of GNSS constellations
• Examine approaches to help accomplish the goals set by GGOS, investigating options such as:
  • higher repetition rates
  • optimal normal point formulation
  • interleaving tracking of targets, better sampling of orbits
  • allocating targets to sub-networks, etc.
• Optimization of the network design and deployment of the appropriate space segment
• Discussion of the fundamental differences, geometric and dynamic, between geodetic cannonball type targets (LAGEOS) and the complicated GNSS spacecraft
• Discussion of applications specifically enabled through the synergism of the two techniques, e.g. the likely improvement of LEO POD with the improved GNSS orbital products and their impact on Earth Observation products relying on these orbits (radar and laser altimetry, geopotential missions, atmospheric lidar and sounding missions, topography missions, SAR and InSAR missions, etc.)