European Geosciences Union
Division on Geodesy
President: Johannes Böhm (g@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Annette Eicker
(annette.eicker@hcu-hamburg.de)
Traditionally geodesy is the science of the measurement and the mapping of the Earth’s surface. Since the surface is mainly shaped by the Earth’s gravity field the classical definition includes the Earth’s gravitational potential. Observing the Earth figure, the orientation and rotation as well as the gravity field, geodesy today provides spatial and temporal patterns of geophysical processes within the Earth system such as sea level rise, tides, melting of continental ice masses, changes in global water circulation and in the atmosphere or deformations of the solid Earth. Consequently, the geodesy division covers activities on the whole spectrum of modern geodetic Earth system modeling from the measurement systems to the investigation of geophysical processes.
The 2019 Vening Meinesz Medal is awarded to Tonie van Dam for pioneering work on the deformations of the solid Earth under a variety of surface loads and on their measurements using space geodetic observation techniques.
The 2019 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award is awarded to Benedikt Soja for original research and contributions to the fields of very long baseline interferometry and terrestrial reference frames.
The 2018 Vening Meinesz Medal is awarded to Markus Rothacher for his pioneering work in linking geometry, rotation and gravity to space geodetic observations and subsequently enhancing the understanding of the Earth system.
The 2018 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award is awarded to Sara Bruni for her innovative contributions to global and regional reference-frame studies bridging the gap to other fields of geosciences, such as geodynamics.
The 2018 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Saniya Behzadpour Error modeling validation of GRACE gravity data
The 2018 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to William Durkin Impact of local crustal variations and ice mass balance uncertainties on interpreting regional GIA in southeast Alaska
With the launch of the GRACE Follow-On twin satellites in 2018, the fundamentals and details of Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking (SST) measurements between low Earth orbiters find a lot of interest these days. The low-low SST technique was very successfully pioneered by the GRACE mission (2002-2017). The pair of satellites of GRACE Follow-On, a joint NASA/GFZ mission, carries two independent and complementary SST systems: the well-proven micrometer precision K-band system of GRACE, and in addition, an experimental laser ranging interferometer with even …
Earlier this month, we hosted a record-breaking number of participants (over 16,000) at our annual EGU General Assembly in Vienna. The meeting included over 16,000 poster, oral and PICO presentations in over 650 sessions, as well as a number of popular short courses and side events. We are grateful to all participants, including conveners, the EGU Programme Committee, Copernicus Meetings, conference assistants, exhibitors, and ACV and EGU office staff, for making the meeting a success. If you participated in the meeting, we especially welcome your suggestions and feedback (deadline: 9 June), which will be instrumental in ensuring an even more successful General Assembly next year (3–8 May 2020, Vienna).
Of special highlight at the meeting was a session on ‘Science, Politics and European (dis)integration: A Conversation of Geoscientists with Ilaria Capua and Mario Monti’, which motivated the EGU to issue a declaration supporting a united Europe for the benefit of global scientific research.
In other news this month, the EGU launched a new journal, Geochronology, as well as a science-policy competition for early career scientists (deadline: 15 May). We also ran an extraordinary election, which saw Claudio Zaccone elected as SSS Division President.
Finally, we would like to remind you that we are currently accepting nominations for the 2020 EGU awards and medals, including for the new Angela Croome Award and Katia and Maurice Krafft Award. To promote the best deserving geoscientists from around the world and increase diversity in the group of EGU awardees and medallists, we encourage the EGU membership to consider gender, geographical, and cultural balance when nominating outstanding Earth, planetary and space scientists at various career stages. Please consider submitting a nomination by 15 June.