The availability of highly accurate global reference frames and Earth Orientation Parameters are of major importance for all positioning and navigation applications on Earth, Sea, Air and also in Space. This is equally true for ESA missions and the EU space programs, e.g. Galileo, EGNOS and Copernicus.

In the frame of its responsibility to provide the Geodetic reference for ESA missions, ESA’s Navigation Support Office at ESOC is contributing to the realisation of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) and the combined Earth Orientation Parameters provided by the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) . The contribution is realised through individual contributions to international services such as the International GNSS Service (IGS) , the International Laser Ranging Services (ILRS) , the International DORIS Service (IDS) , the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) . The contribution to the International VLBI Service (IVS) is currently under preparation.

For the combination and long-term predictions of the Earth orientation products ESA is still relying on the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS). Considering the importance of up-to-date Earth orientation parameters, the dependence on a single source outside Europe is considered a risk for European industry, for ESA missions and for EU programmes. For this reason, ESA developed an independent ESA Earth Rotation Parameter product.

While the ESA ERP products are already being published, we are working in parallel to develop and realise a complete set of Earth Orientation Parameters, to also include the celestial pole estimates and predictions.

Additionally, the geodetic reference activities are supplemented by a time scale realisation at ESOC. UTC(ESA) is a joint activity between the Radio Frequency Systems & Payloads Office in ESTEC, the Station Subsystems Section and the Navigation Support Office in ESOC.

The ESA Earth Rotation Parameters are made routinely available here . Publication is done on a daily basis, twice per day at ~12:00 and ~00:00 UTC , and includes 119 days of predictions in the future.

Please keep monitoring this page for future announcements: http://navigation-office.esa.int/Important_Notices_and_Announcements.html