Spatial Geodesy from Colombia: Starting Contributions from Academia

Abstract

The peace process in Colombia promoted the strengthening of the national geodetic network, which has been densified thanks to the coordination of the active networks of the IC AC and the Colombian Geological Service (Conpes 3958, 2019) allowing in a few years to go from 46 to more than 260 CORS stations, which shows sufficiency at the country level in GNSS development and its different technical and geoscientific applications. However, current Geodesy-related curricula in Colombia, as well as research groups at universities, institutions, and companies in the geospatial sector, do not include R&D&I development nor projects related to processing in other spatial geodesy techniques. For this reason, the NIDE research group has created a space geodesy research line. The first stage of this work was the development of a methodological guide in Spanish for processing VLBI data using Vienna VLBI and Satellite Software (VieVS). This was followed by GGRF outreach programs, such as the development of a dashboard to provide a practical and graphical display of the global VLBI infrastructure and GitHub resources with complementary information on the applied processing methodology. An intrinsic elective program is currently being planned to articulate undergraduate and graduate research, allowing for national academic mobility for programs related to the Geosciences. The goal is to formalize and promote research, development, and interaction activities with the international community. Finally, the plan is to include teaching SLR. and LLR. techniques in the syllabus.