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IERS Message No. 36                                        December 9, 2002
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Final Draft of the IERS Conventions 2000

The IERS Convention Center announces that the final electronic draft of
the IERS Conventions 2000 is now available at
maia.usno.navy.mil/conv2000.html. Of particular interest is the
availability of Chapter 5, "Transformation between the Celestial and
Terrestrial Systems." Numerical values contained in this chapter have
been slightly revised from earlier provisional values to ensure
continuity of the IERS products. Software consistent with the procedures
outlined in Chapter 5 is also provided at this site in order to
implement the recommendations of the IAU 24th General Assembly.

Some minor additions are still expected from contributors. Comments and
suggestions regarding the draft are invited through 31 December 2002. At
that time the IERS Convention Center expects to "freeze" this version of
the Conventions and to publish the work in printed form. The Convention
Center will provide updates and additional information regarding the
IERS Conventions on a continuous basis on the web site given above.
These will be announced by future IERS Messages.

Please send suggestions for the changes in the final draft to Dennis
McCarthy at dmc@maia.usno.navy.mil with Cc to Gerard Petit at
gpetit@bipm.org.

Dennis D. McCarthy and Gerard Petit,
IERS Convention Center


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