Joint Summary Report of the IAU/IUGG Working Groups on the Rotation of the Earth and the Terrestrial Reference System

Abstract

AbstractThe Working Group on the Rotation of the Earth was established in 1978 and developed a programme of international collaboration to Monitor Earth-Rotation and Intercompare the Techniques of observation and analysis (MERIT). The MERIT Short Campaign was held in 1980 to test and develop the organisational arrangements required during the MERIT Main Campaign in 1983-4. The Working Group on the Terrestrial Reference System was established in 1980 to prepare a proposal for the establishment and maintenance of a new Conventional Terrestrial Reference System (COTES) that would be based on the new techniques of space geodesy. The Working Groups collaborated closely and organised two intensive campaigns in 1984 and 1985 that were aimed primarily at determining the relationships between the reference systems of the six different techniques that were used to determine earth-rotation parameters. Observational data were obtained from 35 countries; analyses and intercomparisons of the results were carried out in 7 countries. The Working Groups reviewed the results at the Third MERIT Workshop and recommended that a new International Earth Rotation Service be set up in 1988 and that it be based on the use of very-long-baseline radio interferometry and both satellite and lunar laser ranging.