Progressing Toward the Establishment of a New Geodetic Prediction Center

Various features of the Earth system, including its shape, gravitational field, and orientation in space, can be measured through geodetic observations. These measurements play a vital role in both scientific research and practical applications, as evidenced by their contributions to the study of geodynamic events, climate change monitoring, and navigation in space and on Earth. Recognizing the importance of these characteristics, the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) recently initiated the definition of Essential Geodetic Variables (EGVs). These variables represent core metrics that capture key geodetic properties of the Earth. Requirements for EGVs include accuracy, spatiotemporal resolution, and latency, with the latter being especially critical for real-time applications. To meet user needs, many scientific disciplines depend on forecasts of specific EGVs over varying time horizons.

The Space Geodesy Group at the University of Alicante, along with the Geodesy Group at Spain’s National Geographic Institute (IGN), possesses extensive expertise in geodesy, particularly in Earth rotation theory, modeling, and predicting Earth Orientation Parameters (EOPs). This expertise has been bolstered by their active participation in the Second Earth Orientation Parameters Prediction Comparison Campaign (2nd EOP PCC), which ran from September 1, 2021, to December 31, 2022. These efforts have paved the way for establishing the first Spanish-Portuguese Geodetic Prediction Center, which will primarily focus on EOP forecasting. The center also aims to expand in the near future to include other critical geodetic products and EGVs, such as Earth angular momentum functions, station coordinates, tropospheric zenith wet delays, ionospheric total electron content, and satellite orbit predictions.