Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 11:54:33 -0700
From: Joann C Joselyn
The IUGG Electronic Journal
Volume 5 No. 1 (January 1, 2005)
This short, informal newsletter is intended to keep IUGG Member National
Committees informed about the activities of the IUGG Associations, and
actions of the IUGG Secretariat. Past issues are posted on the IUGG Web
site. Please forward this message to those who will benefit from the
information. Your comments are welcome.
But first, more information on the Indian Ocean Tsunami Disasters.
Dr. V.K. Gusiakov (Russia) has assembled the initial geophysical
information related to the December 26, 2004 earthquake and tsunami
event and has made it available at the following URL:
http://tsun.sscc.ru/tsulab/20041226.htm. Temporarily, until more
sophisticated Internet resource is established, this will be a joint
IUGG/TC-ITIC-ICG/ITSU site dedicated to this event. The site will be
upgraded as soon as new information becomes available.
Contents
1. Happy New Year!
The IUGG Yearbook for 2005 is in press
The Comptes Rendus of the XXIII IUGG General Assembly is done
2. Initiatives selected for IUGG support in 2005
3. IGY+50 Developments
4. New Officers named for the Union Commission on GeoRisk
5. Report of the SCOR General Meeting
6. The State of the Planet: Frontiers and Challenges in Geophysics
7. IUGG-related meetings occurring during January - March 2005
1. Happy New Year!
The IUGG Yearbook for 2005 is in press
The Comptes Rendus of the XXIII IUGG General Assembly is finished
Thanks to all of the Adhering Body National Committees and the
Associations for helping to update the information in the IUGG Yearbook!
Assistant Secretary General Katina Rogers completed the master copy of
the 2005 Yearbook on 9 December. It is posted on the IUGG Website
(http://www.IUGG.org), and will be printed and distributed by the end of
January. During 2005, updates to addresses and other information in the
Yearbook should be sent to the Secretariat (secretariat@iugg.org) as
soon as they are known; our goal is to update the Web copy of the
Yearbook periodically throughout the year.
Thanks also to the 2003 IUGG General Assembly Local Organizing Committee
members Kiyoshi Suyehiro and Masataka Kinoshita, for their continuing
commitment to IUGG to publish the Comptes Rendus. Copies have now been
mailed to all registrants at the Sapporo Assembly, and the entire
publication can be downloaded from the IUGG web site. We are grateful
for their work to produce this record of the Proceedings of the General
Assembly.
Best Wishes to everyone for a healthy and prosperous New Year!
2. Initiatives selected for IUGG support in 2005
At the 1999 General Assembly, an "opportunity fund" was established in
the IUGG budget to support proposals for inter-Association initiatives
that particularly benefit developing countries. For 2005, a total of
$25,000 was awarded to the four new projects and their sponsors, listed
below.
Formulation Activities of the Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY). IAGA,
endorsed as a Union initiative by the IUGG Executive Committee in
September 2004.
Distribution of the proceedings of the 2003 IUGG Tsunami Symposium to
tsunami warning centers in countries around the Pacific. Tsunami
Commission (IASPEI/IAPSO/IAVCEI)
Development of a comprehensive historical earthquake and tsunami
database for the South-West Pacific. GeoRisk Commission
WMO/GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) Working Group
support. IAHS/IAMAS
3. IGY+50 Developments
Planning for the International Year of Planet Earth is progressing.
Brochures are now available for several of the science themes (Health,
Hazards, Climate, Resources, and Deep Earth), and their Outreach
Programme; these can be downloaded from http://www.esfs.org . The
brochures speak of invitations to geoscientists to propose projects to
be conducted within the framework of the International Year, although
these forms are not yet ready. Brochures are in progress for the other
science themes (Megacities, Ocean, and Groundwater), and two additional
themes are under development (Soils, and Life).
The second issue of EGY News (November 2004) has been released. It
contains information articles such as eGY nomenclature, reports of past
planning meetings, and notices of future meetings. It can be downloaded
from http://www.egy..org or upon request, new issues can be e-mailed
automatically.
It is agreed that studies of the coupled Sun-Earth system within the
International Heliospheric Year (IHY) initiative will be a focus of
annual basic science workshops under the auspices of the UN Committee on
the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. The IHY North American Community
Science Planning Workshop will be held in Boulder, Colorado USA, 16-18
February 2005. Details about the meeting are posted at
http://ihy.gsfc.nasa.gov/events/feb2005_workshop.shtml
4. New Officers named for the Union Commission on GeoRisk
At the recent meeting in Hyderabad, India, of the Union Commission on
Geophysical Risk and Sustainability (GeoRisk), the following new
officers began their work.
President:
Alik Ismail-Zadeh, Geophysical Institute, University of Karlsruhe,
Germany, and the International Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory
and Mathematical Geophysics, Moscow, Russia
Secretary General: Gerd Tetzlaff, Institute of Meteorology, University of Leipzig,
Germany
Vice-Presidents:
Ramesh Singh, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of
Technology, India, and the School of Computational Sciences, George
Mason University, Virginia, USA; and
Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Yamanishi University, Japan
Treasurer: Paula Dunbar, National Geophysical Data Center, USA.
The Past President and Honorary Commission Member is Tom Beer, CSIRO
Environmental Risk Network, AUSTRALIA; and Commission Members are
Hermann Drewes (IAG), Harsh Gupta (IUGG Bureau), Viacheslav Gusiakov
(Tsunami Commission), Kosuke Heki (IAG), A.W. Jayawardena (IAHS), Susan
McLean (IAGA), Evgeny Kontar (IAPSO), Vladimir Kossobokov (IASPEI), Uri
Shamir (IUGG President), and Zhongliang Wu (IASPEI). The GeoRisk
Webmaster is Dmitry Krupsky (Russia).
5. Report of the SCOR General Meeting
The XXVIth General Meeting of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic
Research (SCOR) was held 27-30 September 2004 at the CNR-Istituto di
Scienze Marine (ISMAR) in Venice, Italy. Michael MacCracken and Paola
Rizzoli attended on behalf of IUGG. Actions taken include the following.
1. Bjørn Sundby (Canada) was elected president of SCOR for a four-year
term. Victor Akulichev (Russia) began a two-year term as a SCOR
Vice-President and Ilana Wainer (Brazil) was reappointed as a Co-opted
Member of the Executive Committee for the period 2004-2006. The other
Co-opted Member position will be left vacant for now.
2. Working groups are the primary means through which SCOR contributes
to advancing understanding of the ocean. Two working groups were
disbanded after completing their tasks; 6 working groups were continued,
two new working groups were approved. The 2005 call for WG proposals
will emphasize physical oceanography and marine geology and geophysics
activities.
3. SCOR will coordinate the participation of SCOR co-sponsored and
SCOR-affiliated projects for the International Polar Year (IPY), and
will offer assistance in future planning.
4. SCOR is continuing its efforts to strengthen the capabilities and
involvement of ocean research groups in the developing world. One
particular activity is to encourage formation of Regional Graduate
Schools of Oceanography.
5. The 2005 meeting of the SCOR Executive Committee will be held in
Cairns, Australia during the week following the joint IAGA/IAPSO/IABO
meeting in late August.
6. The 2006 SCOR General Assembly will be held in Chile. A committee was
formed to plan SCOR's 50th Anniversary meeting in 2008 in Woods Hole,
Massachusetts, where the first SCOR meeting was held.
[This news article was extracted from the liaison report by M. MacCracken]
6. The State of the Planet: Frontiers and Challenges in Geophysics
This book, a new release by the American Geophysical Union, is derived
from the prestigious Union Symposia at the 2003 (Sapporo) IUGG General
Assembly. Edited by R.S.J. Sparks and C.J. Hawkesworth, this volume
contains 30 papers by leading scientists in IUGG disciplines and is
written for specialists and non-specialists alike. The list price is
$70; AGU members receive a discount. To order, either follow the
directions on the AGU website (www.agu.org) under Publications, or send
an e-mail message to orders@agu.org. IUGG will purchase 100 copies to
be distributed by IAVCEI to learning institutions in the developing world.
7. IUGG-related meetings occurring during January - March 2005
A calendar of meetings of interest to IUGG disciplines (especially those
organized or sponsored by IUGG Associations) is posted on the IUGG Web
Site [www.IUGG.org]. Specific information about these meetings,
including web links, can be found there. Individual Associations also
list more meetings on their web sites appropriate to their disciplines.
January 13- 15 UNESCO, Paris, France, Physics for Tomorrow, the Launch
Conference of the UN International Year of Physics 2005
January 17 - 23 IAG/IASPEI, Trieste, Italy, Joint Capacity Building
Workshop on Deformation Measurements and Understanding Natural Hazards
in Developing Countries
January 18 - 22 UN-ISDR, Kobe, Japan, World Conference on Disaster Reduction
January 31 - February 5 IAG, Budapest, Hungary, International IGeS Geoid School
February 7 - 11 SCOPE, New Delhi, India, SCOPE XIIth General Assembly
February 23 - 25 IAHS, Bonn, Germany, International Conference on
Integrated Assessment of Water Resources and Global Change: A
North-South Analysis
March 15 - 17 IAGA/EMSEV, Chofu, Tokyo, Japan, International Workshop on
Seismo Electromagnetics
March 17 - 19 IAG, Jaén, Spain, International Symposium on Geodetic
Deformation Monitoring: From Geophysical to Geodetic Roles
March 21 - 23 ISPRS, Delft, The Netherlands, The First International
Symposium on Geo-information for Disaster Management
End of IUGG Electronic Journal Volume 5 Number 1 (January 2005)
J. A. Joselyn, Secretary General [http://www.IUGG.org]
secretariat@iugg.org fax: 1 303 497 3645