Commission 3 – Geodynamics and Earth Rotation

Report of the International Association of Geodesy 2007-2011 ─ Travaux de l’Association Internationale de Géodésie 2007-2011Sub-Commission 3.1: Earth Rotation and Earth TidesPresident: Gerhard Jentzsch (Germany)Vice-President: Spiros Pagiatakis (Toronto)During the IUGG General Assembly in Perugia, 2007, Gerhard Jentzsch was asked tocontinue his presidency. And again, Gerhard Jentzsch asked Spiros Patiatakis to act as Vice-President of this Sub-Commission. Since Olivier Francis did not want to continue as Secretarywe decided that we would pass on without nominating a secretary.1. Symposium on New Challenges in Earth Dynamics, including the 16 th InternationalSymposium on Earth Tides, together with the other two sub commissionsBecause of the re-organisation the old ‘Earth Tide Commission’ was renamed and the scopewas extended to ‘Earth Rotation and Earth Tides’. The new definition and the development ofthe terms of reference covered the first months after the IUGG 2007.A main task was the preparation of the 16th International Symposium on Earth Tides to beheld in Jena in September 2008 together with the other Sub-Commissions of Commission 3and including inter-commission projects and study groups. The symposium was a successfulevent: 116 colleagues from 24 countries took part. The motto of the symposium was “NewChallenges in Earth Dynamics”.During the symposium, the Earth Tide Commission Medal was awarded to two well knowncolleagues:Bernard Ducarme and Tadahiro SatoThe documents as well as the nominating essays written by Walter Zürn for Tadahiro Satoand David Crossley for Bernard Ducarme are published in volume 144 of the Bulletind’Information Marées Terrestres. This was the third and last time this medal was awarded:The name of the commission has changed, and, thus, the name of the medal has to be changedas well (see below).The proceedings were split up in two parts: The first part contains speeches, reports andorganizational details as well as the resolutions and the more technical papers collected for theBulletin d’Information Marées Terrestres (BIM); the first volume no. 144 was alreadypublished in December 2008, no. 145 followed in Dec. 2009, and no. 146 was available inDec. 2010. The second part of the proceedings contains papers published by the Journal ofGeodynamics: a special issue containing 40 papers was prepared by guest editors Jentzsch,Jahr, and Kroner. The special issue, Vol. 45, Nos. 3-5, appeared in Dec. 2009.The resolutions approved at the end of the symposium touch different topics:1. The Earth Tide Commission Medal should be renamed as Paul Melchior Medal toacknowledge first the fact that the Earth Tide Commission does not exist any more underthis name. More important are the tremendous activities Paul Melchior put into thedevelopment of tidal research, especially his activities world-wide, to name this medalafter him.2. The next symposium to be held in Egypt in 2012 (invited by the National ResearchInstitute for Astronomy and Geophysics) should also combine all sub-commissions andinter-commission committees.