Annual Report 2003

The year 2003 has been dominated by the XXIII General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geomagnetism (IUGG 2003), held in Sapporo, Japan on 30 June - 11 July 2003, and the associated General Assembly of IAGA.

Preparations for IUGG 2003

Preparations of the IAGA scientific programme for Sapporo involved a large fraction of the IAGA scientific community during the first half of the year. The IUGG Scientific Programme Committee held its final meeting in Tokyo in the first week of March. The Secretary General visited Sapporo in connection with the Tokyo meeting to be informed of and discuss the conference facilities.


IUGG 2003, Scientific Programme

The number of IAGA scientist registering for the Assembly was 741. IAGA scientists led 53 symposia distributed as follows between inter-Association symposia (JSA) and IAGA division/commission ones:

Symposia Lead Number of symposia
JSA 9
Division I 10
Division II 7
Division III 14
Division IV 4
Division V 7
Inter-Divisional Commission on Developing Countries (IDCDC) 2

Of the 9 joint symposia, 4 were led by Division I and 5 by Division II.

The number of papers accepted for those 53 symposia was 1601, distributed as follows:

Symposia Lead Number of symposia
JSA 347
Division I 221
Division II 234
Division III 446
Division IV 125
Division V 195
Inter-Divisional Commission on Developing Countries (IDCDC) 33

Some decisions taken at business meetings in Sapporo

  • The IAGA Conference of Delegates elected the new IAGA President for the quadrennium 2003-2007, Charles Barton (Australia), and a new Executive committee.
  • The (old) Executive Committee appointed new Division/Commission Heads (in accordance with proposals of the Division business meetings).
  • At the business meetings of the working groups of the various divisions, new Chairs and Co-Chairs were elected/appointed.
  • The (old) Executive Committee agreed to allocate the following amounts to meetings to be held after the Assembly and before the end of 2004:
    1.  2nd IAGA/ICMA Workshop on the vertical atmospheric coupling USD 1000
    2. XIth IAGA Workshop on geomagnetic observatory instruments USD 3000
    3. 3rd IAGA/ICMA Workshop on long-term trends in the upper atmosph. USD 1000
    4. 9th Meeting on paleo-, rock-, and environmental magnetism USD 1000
    5. 3rd General assembly of SPARC USD 500
    6. 35th General Assembly of COSPAR USD 500
    7. Workshop to celebrate the 100-year anniver. of Ebro Geomag. Obs. USD 1000
    8. 17th electromagnetic induction workshop USD 1500

IGY + 50: IAGA Task Group proposal

  1. Establish an electronic Geophysical Year (eGY; Union-wide)
  2. Support CAWSES as an IAGA-dominant I*Y
  3. Provide input from IAGA to other I*Ys (IYPE, IHY, IPY)

Preparations for the IAGA Scientific Assembly in Toulouse in 2005

Preparations of the scientific programme of the Toulouse Assembly have been going on during the last several months of 2003. A meeting of Division Heads on programme matters was held in connection with the fall AGU meeting in December 2003.

IAGA brochure

A new IAGA brochure was produced before IUGG 2003 and was distributed to all participants at the Assembly. Charles Barton led the effort.

IAGA web site

A new IAGA web site (www.iugg.org/iaga) has been developed. Details on all items listed above can be found at the site, and much more.

IAGA News No. 40

IAGA News No. 40 was distributed over the net to some 800 IAGA scientists all over the world in December of 2003. It can be found also at the IAGA web site.

Bengt Hultqvist
Secretary General of IAGA.

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