GGOS Bureau of Products and Standards

The Bureau of Products and Standards (BPS) supports GGOS in its goal to provide consistent geodetic products needed to monitor, map, and understand changes in the Earth’s shape, rotation, and gravity field. In addition to the operational structure, the Committees “Earth System Modeling” and “Essential Geodetic Variables” as well as the Working Group “Towards a consistent set of parameters for the definition of a new Geodetic Reference System (GRS)” are associated to the BPS. This contribution presents the structure and role of the BPS, and it highlights some of the recent activities. A key focus is on the evaluation of standards and conventions used for the generation of geodetic products. In this context, the BPS contributions for the updating of Chapter 1 “General definitions and numerical standards” of the IERS Conventions were presented and discussed. Furthermore, the activities are focused on the classification of geodetic products and on the generation of user-friendly product descriptions to support the establishment of a comprehensive Internet portal for Geodesy under the responsibility of GGOS. The GGOS website www.ggos.org serves as an “entrance door” and information platform to geodetic data and products, and should become an essential tool to make these data and products easier findable and accessible, and to make other disciplines and the society aware of Geodesy and the importance of its products