3.2.3.3 IGEX-98: Success and the Future
Although many are just joining this event today, the ION Satellite Division's 12th Annual Technical Meeting actually got rolling last weekend. One of the major events that already occurred was a two-day workshop to discuss the results of the International GLONASS Experiment (IGEX-98)-the first internationally coordinated tracking and analysis experiment dedicated to the Russian GLONASS satellite constellation. The project officially ended April 19 but reviews of the results are still ongoing and were discussed in the workshop on Monday and Tuesday.
Sponsored by ION Satellite Division, NASA, and the International GPS Service (IGS), the workshops covered GLONASS status, plans, and performance; overviewed IGEX-98's current status, as well as assessing geopolitical and technical issues facing the group; discussed GLONASS receiver technology; offered a Russian perspective on various issues; presented lessons leaned about tracking, processing, and analyzing GLONASS data and how these compare with GPS; described IGEX station network operations, orbit determination, time and time transfer, datum transformations, and other applications; and offered insight into GPS-GLONASS interoperability and future plans for system use.
The six-month IGEX-98 campaign was sponsored by ION's GLONASS-GPS Interoperability Working Group, the International Earth Rotation Service , the International
Association of Geodesy's Commission VIII for the International Coordination of Space Techniques for Geodesy and Geodynamics, and the International GPS Service. A steering committee of members from these organizations, chaired by Dr. Pascal Willis of France's Institut Geographique National, organized and managed the experiment. During the experiment, participants observed GLONASS receivers at 68 stations in 25 countries full or part time.
Participants agreed that the experiment was a success, producing more-precise orbit information than initially anticipated and attaining many of the goals set forth by the ION GLONASS-GPS Interoperabil-ity Working Group. Orbits have been determined to the 20- centimeter level, an accuracy that was validated by the satellite laser ranging data acquired in conjunction with the experiment. The group also ultimately voted to continue the IGEX campaign, adopting, by a show of hands, the following resolution: "Global, internationally coordinated GLONASS Tracking and Orbit Determination shall continue in the time interval 1999-2003." In addition, it was agreed that the work should continue as a working group within the IGS.
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