The IVS Combination Centre was established by the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS) Directing Board in October 2008 as a joint effort of the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) and the Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut at the Technical University of Munich
(DGFI-TUM).
The operational tasks of the IVS Combination Centre include quality control and a timely combination of the session-based input data provided by the IVS Analysis Centres into a combined Earth Orientation Parameter (EOP) product. The combination results are released as IVS products and serve as an input ot the official EOP time series provided by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service
(IERS). Furthermore, the IVS Combination Centre generates the official IVS input to any activities related to realising and updating the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF).
Tasks assigned to BKG
Quality control for input data provided by the Analysis Centres (formats, suitability for combination, outlier detection).
Validate the individual Analysis Centres and the combination results against each other and w.r.t. external reference time series from IERS, IGS and ILRS (results are available on this web page).
Create combined products using the Combination and Solution library of the DGFI Orbit and Geodetic Parameter Estimation Software (DOGS-CS), based on unconstrained (datum-free) normal equations provided by the Analysis Centres.
Submit the operational combined EOP series as official IVS products to the IERS components and Data Centres.
Create the official combined IVS contribution to the ITRF and ITRF updates in the form of session-wise combined datum-free normal equations in SINEX format.
Tasks assigned to DGFI-TUM
Develop and maintain the DOGS-CS software according to newest scientific standards and conventions.
Provide scientific support for development of the existing and new products of the IVS Combination Centre.
Analysis Centres
The IVS Analysis Centres produce series of Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) as well as station coordinates and source positions in regular intervals. Based on the session-wise datum-free normal equations as input data, the IVS Combination Centre generates combined solutions which are made available as official IVS products.