European Combined Geodetic Network

IAG Sub-Commission for Europe EUREF
as Sub-Commission 1.3.a of IAG Commission 1 - Reference Frames

and

IAG Sub-Commission for Europe of the International Gravity and Geoid Commission (IGGC)

EuroGeographics and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC)

Consultative Committee for Mass and Related Quantities (CCM) of Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM)

IAG Inter-Commission Project Vertical Reference Frames (ICP 1.2)

IAG European Gravity and Geoid Project (CP 2.1)

IAG Study Group on Comparison of Absolute Gravimeters (SG 2.1)

Objectives of the ECGN as an integrated European Reference System for Spatial Reference and Gravity are:

• Maintenance of a long time stability of the terrestrial reference system with an accuracy of 10^-9 for Europe especially in the height component
• In-situ combination of geometric positioning (GPS) with physical height and other Earth gravity parameters in 1 cm accuracy level
• Modelling of influences of time-dependent parameters of the solid Earth of the Earth gravity field, the atmosphere, the oceans, the hydrosphere for different applications of positioning

Among the further aims rank

• contribution to the European gravity field modelling
• the modelling of gravity field components to validate the satellite gravity missions CHAMP, GRACE and GOCE
• and to be a platform for further geo-components (GMES, GEOSS, GGOS).

The ECGN is considered as a European contribution to the IAG project Global Geodetic Observation System (GGOS). At the business meeting of the IGGC at the Gravity and Geoid 2002 Symposium in Thessaloniki the ECGN project as a cross-commission project was approved. The primary concern of the project consists in connecting the height component with the gravity determination while allowing for measuring data that are acquired in the European coastal regions and above adjacent seas.