Chair: Leonid Vitushkin (International Bureau of Weights and Measures - BIPM)

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Absolute ballistic gravimeters have become the primary standards of the acceleration unit in the field of free-fall acceleration measurements (in brief, standards of free-fall acceleration). Currently the only way to determine the level of accuracy of the absolute ballistic gravimeters and provide the uniformity in absolute measurements of free-fall acceleration g is by a comparison ot the results of their measurements.

The principal task of the Special Study Group consists of the organization (in collaboration with the BIPM and CCM WGG, Consultative Committee on Mass and Related Topics Working Group on Gravity) of the four-year period International Comparisons of Absolute Gravimeters (ICAGs) at the BIPM and Regional International Comparisons of Absolute Gravimeters (RICAGs) at the sites selected on a continental scale. It should be noted that the next ICAG should be held in 2005.

The increasing demand for reliability in absolute gravity measurements requires the development of a technical protocol for future ICAGs following the rules proposed in the international Mutual Recognition Arrangement (signed in 1999 by national metrology institutes) for national measurement standards and calibration and measurement certificates.

The relevance to the SG is that its members are the specialists from the geodetic and geophysical communities, as well as the metrological community and this study group is more open to participation than the more official CCM WGG where the membership is related to the institutes responsible for the traceability in gravimetry. Such intercommunications within the Study Group as well as a linkage between this group and CCM WGG will make it possible to develop the ICAGs and RICAGs technical protocol accepted by both communities.

The sites for regional comparisons of absolute gravimeters (in America, Asia, Europe, and Africa) should be recommended by the geodetic-geophysical community and related to the regional structure of metrology community (Regional Metrology Organizations - RMO, for instance, EUROMET - European Metrology Organization, SIM - Inter-American Metrology System, etc.).

The objectives of the Study Group include:

- The organization (in collaboration with the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) and Working Group on Gravimetry of Consultative Committee on Mass and Related Topics (CCM WGG) of the four-year period International Comparisons of Absolute Gravimeters (ICAGs) at the BIPM and Regional International Comparisons of Absolute Gravimeters (RICAGs) at the sites selected on continental scale.

- The selection of the sites for regional (on a continental scale) comparisons of absolute gravimeters in collaboration with other working groups of Sub-Commission 2.1 and CMM WGG.

This Study Group reports to Sub-Commission 2.1

Membership

Leonid Vitushkin (Chair)(France)
Martine Amalvict (France)
Diethard Ruess (Austria)
Enrique Rodriguez Pujol (Spain)
Ian Robinson (UK)
Philippe Richard (Switzerland)
Simon Williams (UK)
Jaakko Mäkinen (Finland)
Michel Van Camp (Belgium)
Shigeki Mizushima (Japan)
Zhiheng Jiang (France)
Alexandr Kopaev (Russia)
Petr Medvedev (Russia)
James Faller (USA)
Artyom Vitushkin (USA)
Gleb Demianov (Russia)
Olivier Francis (Luxembourg)
Tonie van Dam (Luxembourg)
Alessandro Germak (Italy)
Yuriy Lokshin (Ukraine)
Andrzej Pashuta (Poland)
Arkadii Sinelnikov (Russia)
Evgenii Krivtsov (Russia)
Hsien-Chi Yeh (Taiwan)
Chiungwu Lee (Taiwan)
Jacques Hinderer (France)
Gennadii Arnautov (Russia)
Yuri Stus (Russia)
Matthias Becker (Germany)
Roger Hipkin (UK)
Jan Mrlina (Czech Republic)