GGOS IberAtlantic:
A new GGOS Affiliate

A GGOS Affiliate is a national or regional organisation that coordinates geodetic activities in that country or region. GGOS Affiliates provide a forum for multi-technique space geodetic discussions, work to improve the quality of space geodetic observations, and encourage cooperation between the various agencies in that country or region that own, operate, and maintain the space geodetic infrastructure there.

During the GGOS Days 2022 (14-15 November 2022 in Munich, Germany) our colleagues Esther Azcue Infanzón and José Antonio López Fernández from the Yebes Observatory, Instituto Geográfico Nacional of Spain approached GGOS to evaluate the possibility of establishing a GGOS Affiliate. In 2023, they hosted the GGOS Days 2023 (20-22 September 2023 in Alcalá de Henares and Yebes Observatory, Spain) and gave dedicated presentations on the status of geodesy in Spain and Portugal, which provided a framework to concretise the proposal for GGOS IberAtlantic.

(13 m) VLBI radio telescope of the RAEGE project (Red Atlántica de Estaciones Geodinámicas y Espaciales), a joint project of the Instituto Geográfico Nacional of Spain and the Government of the Azores, Portugal, and (40 m) radio telescope in Yebes, Spain. Courtesy of Esther Azcue Infazón.

Based on the outcomes of the GGOS Days 2023, the national geodetic authorities of both countries, the Instituto Geográfico Nacional and the National Section of Geodesy in Spain and the Direção Geral do Território in Portugal, signed letters of intent and defined terms of reference to initiate the operation of GGOS IberAtlantic.  In March 2024, GGOS received a formal request to create the GGOS subsidiary GGOS IberAtlantic and on 12 April 2024, the GGOS Governing Board unanimously approved GGOS IberAtlantic. We, the GGOS Executive Committee, welcome the Spanish and Portuguese colleagues to GGOS: Esther Azcue Infanzón, Helena Cristina Ribeiro, Luisa Magalhaes, José Antonio López Fernández, Marcelino Valdés Pérez De Vargas, and Manuel Ángel Sánchez Piedra, and highly appreciate their contribution. GGOS IberAtlantic now joins the two existing GGOS Affiliates: GGOS Japan and GGOS D-A-CH.

Laura Sánchez, GGOS President

Martin Sehnal, Director of the GGOS Coordinating Office

29th April 2024