Title: The Geodesy Observatory of Tahiti (French Polynesia)

Speaker: Prof. Jean-Pierre Barriot and Dr. Lydie Sichoix

Time:  9:30am,Feb.15,2012

Location: Middle Conference room,3rd floor

Abstract:
　  The Geodesy Observatory of Tahiti, a joint Observatory of NASA (US space agency) and CNES (French space agency), is located on the campus of the University of French Polynesia (3,000 students). French Polynesia is an overseas territory of France located in the middle of the South Pacifi (270,000 inhabitants). It is made up of several groups of Polynesian islands (5 archipelagos, 120 islands and 5,000,000 km2 of seas), the most famous island being Tahiti in the Society Islands group, which is also the most populous island and the seat of the capital of the territory (Papeete). We present all the activities that are currently underway at the Geodesy Observatory of Tahiti. On the observation side, this includes the tracking of Earth satellites by SLR, DORIS and GPS, as well as tide gauges recording (mean sea level, tsunamis). On the research side, this includes the modeling of the viscoelastic subsidence of Polynesian islands, the modeling of erosion processes acting on Polynesian landscapes, and the monitoring of the water contents of the atmosphere from GPS data. The Geodesy laboratory is also involved in planetary research (Rosetta and Bepi-Colombo missions).