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The IERS Rapid Service/Prediction Center is the product center
of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems
Service responsible for providing Earth orientation parameters
(EOPs) on a rapid turnaround basis. This service is primarily
intended for real-time users and others needing the highest
quality EOP information sooner than is available in the IERS
final series (Bulletin B) published by the IERS Earth
Orientation Center, which is based at the Observatoire de Paris.
This Center is an activity of the Earth Orientation (EO)
Department at the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO). The mission of
the USNO includes determining the positions and motions of
celestial bodies, measuring the Earth's rotation and
orientation, maintaining the master clock for the U.S., and
disseminating precise time (atomic and astronomical). The EO
Dept. contributes to this mission by collecting suitable
observations and performing data analyses to determine and
predict the time-varying orientation of the terrestrial
reference frame within the quasi-inertial celestial reference
frame. The key parameters determined and disseminated are polar
motion coordinates, Universal Time (UT1), precession, and
nutation. The user community is very broadly based, the main
applications involving principally high-accuracy navigation and
positioning, particularly in real-time and near real-time modes.
Website: "http://maia.usno.navy.mil/"
[Summary provided by the IERS Rapid Service/Prediction Center.]
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