Adolf's sudden death, just after many of us saw him in Boulder, during the IUGG Assembly, came as a great shock. I am sure anybody who had met Adolf will remember him and readily identify with the thoughts expressed about him in this Bulletin.

General

This Bulletin is well overdue and I appologise for the time it has taken me to produce it. Dr Piggott will be almost 82 before he reads about his 80th birthday. My thanks to contributors, especially those who have waited a long time to see their contributions in print.

I experienced a good amount of trouble reproducing some photographs in this issue and finally added them by hand. Regardless of the problems, I welcome further photographs for possible publication. With practice, I will get better.

There are several issues I would like to draw your attention to: this Bulletin contains a questionnaire on the parameters we scale from ionograms. Please give it careful thought and be sure somebody from your organisation, preferably you, answers it. Second, I have some thoughts about the future of INAG in the electronic world and will be interested in your ideas on this.

Scaling Parameters

Who is responsible for maintaining a list of ionospheric parameters that are in common use? INAG gained this role in its inception and the various definitions appear in UAG-23 and UAG-23A. Since the publication of these reports there have been many discussions on parameters and scaling in INAG but over the last few years, little mention has been made of the parameters scaled and archived. At the Boulder IUGG meeting those present indicated they felt INAG had a responsibility in this area that was probably not being met adequately.

The most pressing problem is the number of available code numbers for archiving scaled data from ionograms. To start dealing with this problem, a questionnaire is included with the Bulletin seeking your opinions on all the parameters that can currently be archived.

There is another issue here. Presumably the people, or groups, that generate new parameters should not have the added right to confirm their validity internationally. There will inevitably be a conflict of interest. On the other hand, people will be seeking quick decisions so they can progress to their next goal. This needs to be addressed. One possibility is to set aside a block of codes that can be used freely by anybody, but which have no lasting status for archiving.

Session G5 at URSI General Assembly

I will be producing a proceedings after this meeting, in September, so if you are unable to be in Lille, but wish to put a paper into this Proceedings, please let me know. See comments later in Bulletin.

My thanks to all the contributors to this Bulletin. If you have anything you would like to have appear in an INAG Bulletin, please send it to:

email : phil@ips.gov.au

Back to Bulletins index

Back to INAG-61 Contents page