Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
Observations of Earth rotation and polar motion are now performed on a routine basis by classical astronomical methods and by the satellite Doppler technique.
In the near future the laser is likely to realize its old objective of determining ER and PM with an accuracy of a few milliseconds of arc through ranging to Lageos. VLBI is still in development.
To permit investigation of possible systematic differences, all these techniques should be used simultaneously for a period whose length should not be set in advance.
The Doppler method can still be improved and could be easily introduced at many observatories in support of the Medoc campaign. We present here two possible methods of data condensation which, if implemented, would permit much of the data analysis to be done at the tracking stations and would reduce to a very few the number of parameters required by the central computing agency.