Benjamin Männel, working group leader in GFZ section Space Geodetic Techniques, has been elected to the steering committee of the International GNSS Service IGS.

Through an IGS member election, Männel was appointed to the Governing Board, where he now for four years represents the interests of the GNSS analysis centres within the IGS, as one of two spokespersons. His tasks include the coordination of activities of the analysis centres, the organisation of technical workshops, and the improvement of data analysis.

Benjamin Männel has been a research associate at GFZ since 2017 and is head of the GFZ GNSS Analysis Centre since then. GNSS stands for 'Global Navigation Satellite System' and is used for exact positioning and navigation on Earth. The necessary calculation of satellite parameters is carried out in ten active GNSS analysis centres worldwide, coordinated by IGS.

The IGS is a service within the International Association of Geodesy IAG, an organization of scientific geodesy and responsible for the coordination of research activities and international services in the field of geodesy. The service provides highly accurate data and products for the GNSS systems GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou for science and society via more than 500 observation stations worldwide, 24 of which are operated by GFZ. (ak)

Further information:

• GNSS Analysis Centre at GFZ
• IGS Website