*************************************************************************** IERS Message No. 39 January 30, 2003 *************************************************************************** Joint Discussion on ICRS at IAU General Assembly THE INTERNATIONAL CELESTIAL REFERENCE SYSTEM Maintenance and Future Realizations Joint Discussion 16 at IAU General Assembly Proposing IAU Division: Division I (Fundamental Astronomy) Supporting divisions: I (Fundamental Astronomy), IV (Stars), X (Radio Astronomy) Proposing IAU Commission: 19 (Rotation of the Earth) Joint Discussion of Commissions: 4 (Ephemerides), 8 (Astrometry) and 19 Other Supporting Organization: IAG (International Association of Geodesy) First Announcement: 25 January 2003 Date: 22 July 2003 Place: Darling Harbour Convention Center, Sydney, Australia Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC): F. Mignard (Chairman) francois.mignard@obs-azur.fr D. D. McCarthy (Co-Chairman) mccarthy.dennis@usno.navy.mil G. Beutler, Switzerland beutler@aiub.unibe.ch N. Capitaine, France nicole.capitaine@obspm.fr J. Chapront, France jean.chapront@obspm.fr V. Dehant, Belgium v.dehant@oma.be T. Fukushima, Japan Toshio.Fukushima@nao.ac.jp R. Gaume, USA rgaume@usno.navy.mil C. Ma, USA cma@virgo.gsfc.nasa.gov Z. Malkin, Russia malkin@quasar.ipa.nw.ru M. Soffel, Germany soffel@Rcs1.urz.tu-dresden.de J. Souchay, France jean.souchay@obspm.fr M. Standish, USA ems@smyles.jpl.nasa.gov Wenjing Jin, China jwj@center.shao.ac.cn J. Vondrak, Czech Republic vondrak@ig.cas.cz Abstract Deadline: 1 March 2003 Submit via: http://www.astronomy2003.com Info available at: http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~iauxxv/abstract_notes.shtml Title: Limited to 60 ASCII characters, all in plain ASCII. Text: Limited to 200 words (spaces are not counted), all in plain ASCII. Abstract must clearly indicate relevance to subject matter. Cover letter: Submit an e-mail cover letter announcing submission of your abstract to rwebster@physics.unimelb.edu.au and to all members of the SOC (above). The cover letter should clearly indicate that the abstract is for JD 16. It should also indicate if the abstract is intended as an invited or contributed presentation or as a poster. All submitters of abstracts will be notified by 1 April 2003 whether their presentation has been accepted or rejected as an invited, contributed, or poster presentation. Presentation times are limited since only one day is available for the joint discussion. In order to have your approved abstract included in the GA XXV Abstract Book and, in the case of posters, to have poster space allocated, your registration, including payment, must be submitted by 15 May 2003. All accepted oral presenters are required to submit a printed draft of their presentations before the date of the IAU General Assembly. You will be given an opportunity to make changes before the final copy is submitted for publication in Highlights of Astronomy. The page limit will depend upon the final number of accepted oral presentations. Scientific Rationale for JD 16 The International Celestial Reference System (ICRS) has recently been redefined with the adoption of an International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF) and revised concepts and models to access the system. The ICRF is a radio reference frame and the current realization in optical wavelengths is the HIPPARCOS Catalogue. Maintenance and improvement of the ICRF requires continuing, coordinated observations. Extension and densification of the system to other wavelengths remains as a work to be accomplished. It is also necessary at this time to anticipate the maintenance and extension of the ICRF to meet future needs. The models currently used in the definition of the system also require maintenance to ensure that they are able to meet improving observational accuracy in all wavelengths. The potential significant improvement of reference frames from the results of future space astrometry missions requires planning for the long-term realization of the ICRS. Preliminary Agenda Session 1 : International Celestial Reference Frame A. Fey & J. Souchay Status of the International Celestial Reference Frame C. Ma Potential refinement of the ICRF Contributed oral and poster papers Session 2 : Extension of the International Celestial Reference Frame C. Jacobs ICRF to higher radio frequencies S. Urban Status of the Densification of the ICRF/HCRF in Visible Wavelengths Extending the ICRF into the Infrared: 2MASS Speaker not yet finalized. Contributed oral and poster papers Session 3 : Models V. Dehant Geophysical Nutation Models P. Wallace Practical Consequences of Improved Precession-Nutation Models G. Petit & D. McCarthy IERS Conventions P. Charlot Source structure Contributed oral and poster papers Session 4 : Space-Based Astrometry and Dynamical Reference Frames R. Gaume Status of Space-Based Astrometric Missions F. Mignard Future Space-Based Celestial Reference Frame J. Kovalevsky Systematic apparent motions of galactic sources at a few microarcsecond level M. Standish Relating the dynamical frame and the ephemerides to the ICRS Contributed oral and poster papers *************************************************************************** IERS Messages are edited and distributed by the IERS Central Bureau. To subscribe or unsubscribe, please write to . Archives: http://www.iers.org/iers/publications/messages/ ***************************************************************************