The International DORIS Service (IDS): Recent Developments in Preparation for ITRF2013

The International DORIS Service (IDS) was created in 2003 under the umbrella of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) to foster scientific research related to the French DORIS tracking system and to deliver scientific products, mostly related to the International Earth rotation and Reference systems Service (IERS). We first present some general background related to the DORIS system (current and planned satellites, current tracking network and expected evolution) and to the general IDS organization (from Data Centers, Analysis Centers and Combination Center). Then, we discuss some of the steps recently taken to prepare the IDS submission to ITRF2013 (combined weekly time series based on individual solutions from several Analysis Centers). In particular, recent results obtained from the Analysis Centers and the Combination Center show that improvements can still be made when updating physical models of some DORIS satellites, such as Envisat, Cryosat-2 or Jason-2. The DORIS contribution to ITRF2013 should also benefit from the larger number of ground observations collected by the last generation of DGXX receivers (first instrument being onboard Jason-2 satellite). In particular for polar motion, sub-milliarcsecond accuracy seems now to be achievable. Weekly station positioning internal consistency also seems to be improved with a larger DORIS constellation.