News and Activities
GGOS IberAtlantic (GGOS IA) functions as a regional node of GGOS, focusing on geodetic activities across the Iberian Peninsula and the Atlantic region. GGOS IA fosters collaboration among geodetic institutions while promoting scientific research and technological development tailored to the region’s unique geophysical characteristics.
Meeting Summary – Glacial Isostatic Adjustment Workshop 2025
Com3, Other, 📅 Event UpdateThe “2025 Glacial Isostatic Adjustment Workshop: Advancing Models and Observational Constraints” was held in Sidney, BC, Canada, June 2-6, 2025. The workshop was hosted by Natural Resources Canada and held jointly at the research facilities of the Institute of Ocean Sciences and the Pacific Geoscience Centre. The last such workshop on GIA was held in Ottawa, Canada, in 2019.
The meeting brought together 76 attendees in-person, representing 16 countries. An additional 60 participants joined online during the week, for a combined attendance of 136 registrants representing 23 countries. The participation of early career researchers benefited greatly from the support of IUGG, IACS, NSF and SCAR-INSTANT – an impressive 58% of the in-person participants were early career researchers.
The meeting consisted of oral and poster presentations on topics including Earth rheology, ice sheet evolution and dynamics, modern sea-level change, and geodetic observational techniques. A one-day field trip to local sites offered participants a unique view of the area’s geology and geomorphology, including neotectonic and glacial erosional and depositional features. Topical workshops on the final day provided in-depth discussions on issues of high interest to the GIA community. Among the initiatives and outcomes of the meeting are the ongoing development of a database for GIA model outputs, the planning of a tutorial on an open-source GIA code by the code developer, and the creation of a new mailing list for the GIA community. Detailed information on the workshop program, including the abstract book, can be found on the event’s website:
Author: Karen Simon (GIA)
Geodesy Virtual School 2025 – Summary
Com1, Com2, ECS, GGOS, Other, 📅 Event UpdateThe Geodesy Virtual School 2025: “Terrestrial Reference Frame. Geodynamic and atmospheric monitoring.” was held virtually online in five sessions on June 3, 5, 6, 10, and 12, 2025. The coordination was carried out by Maria Virginia Mackern, professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the National University of Cuyo and Juan A. Maza University, Mendoza, Argentina, with the collaboration of the SIRGAS Executive Committee and the support of the IAG Executive Committee. It was endorsed by IUGG, IAG, IAGA, SIRGAS and GGOS.
It was held virtually and was completely free of charge, allowing access to all interested participants. It was organized by the SIRGAS community from the Americas, with a special invitation extended to the geodetic community of Africa. It had the invaluable collaboration of renowned IAG specialists, who contributed with presentations in English or Spanish, which were pre-recorded and subtitled to ensure both languages were available to the audience. The program includes the names of all the instructors who contributed. We thank the Executive Committees of IAG and SIRGAS for their contributions in designing the final scientific program and selecting the instructors.
Below, we present a brief analysis of the resulting statistics, including both panelists (fig 1) and attendance (fig 2), for each day of the event.
Figure 2. Number of attendees per day of the school. Gender statistics.
Attendees
Most participants were attendees from American countries, which was expected since the event was organized by SIRGAS and Spanish was ensured as a language. In second place were attendees from Europe (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Portugal). In third place were attendees from Asia (Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, and Sri Lanka). Fourth were colleagues from Africa (South Africa, Uganda, and Burkina Faso), and finally, it is worth mentioning that between 2 and 3 attendees also participated from Indonesia, Oceania. Please view a breakdown of participation by country and continent in the Summary PDF.
Training Material – Videos
All lectures were recorded with the instructor’s audio in either Spanish or English and were translated with subtitles (in Spanish or English, as appropriate). These videos are available on the SIRGAS website at the following link https://sirgas.ipgh.org/en/virtual-school-terrestrial-reference-frame-geodynamic-and-atmospheric-monitoring-2025/
Or directly on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sirgasamericas3437/videos
Acknowledgements
We thank IUGG for their support in this training project, which is grounded in inclusion and equality. We also appreciate the valuable endorsements from IAG, IAGA, and GGOS. Our gratitude goes to the Executive Committees of IAG and SIRGAS for their important contributions to designing the program and selecting the instructors.
We sincerely thank the 37 instructors who generously and efficiently delivered their lectures free of charge, helping to make this training event of exceptional academic quality. We are grateful to the Universidad Nacional de Santiago de Chile for providing the Zoom platform support used for the online transmission of the school throughout the five days. Finally, we thank the president of SIRGAS and the collaborators from the Military Geographic Service of Uruguay, especially Laura Camacho, for managing the hosting of the Zoom platform during the five sessions of the school — a task performed with punctuality and responsibility.
Edited by: Martin Sehnal (IAG Secretariat)
Lost Without Geodesy
Com4, ECS, GGOS, IAG, IGS, 🌍 Geodesy NewsWhat if your phone couldn’t tell you where you are? What if airplanes had no navigation? What if early warning systems stopped working? That’s the world when geodesy and its fundamental products suddenly disappear.
Our new cartoon “Lost Without Geodesy” shows just how much we rely on the invisible infrastructure of geodesy — especially Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).
Learn more about GNSS
GNSS satellites orbit Earth, constantly sending signals that let your phone, car, or plane determine its location. But GNSS does much more: it supports earthquake monitoring, sea level studies, climate research, and autonomous navigation.
Geodesy makes the needed precision and the diverse applications possible. Without it, GNSS would drift, and related global systems would fail.
Discover the science behind the tech that guides our modern world – and how geodesy keeps us from getting lost.