Grand Challenges in Geodesy for the 21st Century - Comments by October 25

Colleagues,

We are writing to share with you a draft of the Geodesy Science Plan for your review and comment. Please note that the recommendations will be finalized after this review.

Please advise us on the following:

We are very interested in your thoughts about the text, especially whether it has caught the spirit of the grand challenges discussions to date, and if it is a complete and readable document.

Most sections lead with a quote. We are still looking for one for the following section. Please suggest one if you can!

Section III. The Global View

Your perspective/edits on flow, completeness, impact, or other aspects of the document are very welcome.

There are three editing choices for this document:

1. Google docs: If you are online when you edit, you can work on the google docs version. This helps with version control. Google docs supports simultaneous editing for up to 200 people.

If you are interested in this, please drop Meghan Miller a line at meghan@unavco.org, with the email address that you'd like to use for Google registration. If you are on the writing committee you are already set up for this.

2. Edit the attachment. Please be sure that "track changes" is on. Include your name or initials in the file name when you return it to meghan@unavco.org.

3. Comment on UNAVCO forum. This enables other community members to see your comments, or to open issues for broader discussion.
http://www.unavco.org/voce/viewforum.php?f=43&sid=1d604a7a21c5b07bff4ed9...

Thank you for your engagement in this process!

Jim Davis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, jdavis@cfa.harvard.edu)
Yuri Fialko (SIO/IGPP, yfialko@ucsd.edu)
Meghan Miller (UNAVCO; meghan@unavco.org)
Susan Owen (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Susan.Owen@jpl.nasa.gov)
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Rapid advances in geodesy have opened new fields and enabled the interrogation of the kinematics, structure, and dynamics of the solid Earth and its fluid envelopes. With the continued development of advanced terrestrial and space geodetic methods, geodesy has grown rapidly and there are now crucial geodetic applications in a wide range of scientific fields, from ground water systems and fault dynamics to mapping the speed of ice flows and the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. The pace of this change is quickening, and is coupled with the recognition of this technology-driven science as a national asset in a global economy.

The need for a science plan built on many recent advances: (1) expanded geodetic imaging at regional and global scales, including but not limited to LiDAR, InSAR, UAVSAR, and global topography and time-variable gravity; (2) progress towards mm-level global positional geodesy and mm/yr sea level variability; (3) opportunities for studying the time-variable dynamics of Earth systems relevant to climate change; (4) availability of research, civic, and commercial real-time GPS networks around the world; (5) a burgeoning demand for TLS technology; (6) improvements in data access and analysis with web services and cyberinfrastructure; (7) the potential for expanded use of autonomous integrated geodetic and geophysical ground-based networks and space-based observing systems to study new scientific targets in new geographic settings - including the polar regions - and expand to new science disciplines; (8) new tools for ingestion and analysis of large and complex data sets; (9) new applications in research areas such as cryospheric science, atmospheric science and hydrology; (10) the potential to build on and to integrate continent- and global-scale data sets such as Plate Boundary Observatory/EarthScope, GRACE, and the planned DESDynI mission; (11) opportunities to advance early warning with integrated geophysical data sets; and (12) community commitment to integrative scientific studies that link massive data sets to physically-based models, with direct relevance to mitigation of natural hazards, through the collection and stewardship of long-term geodetic observations.