Comparison of length of day with oceanic and atmospheric angular momentum series

This is a companion paper to earlier comparisons and study of operational polar motion series, published recently in the same journal. In this contribution, four operational, publicly available, length-of-day (LOD) time series have been compared to the atmospheric angular momentum (AAM) augmented with recent oceanic angular momentum (OAM) data during September 1997–July 2000, using several intervals ranging from 3 days to almost 3 years. Additionally, the LOD of the International GNSS Service (IGS) historical series and a new LOD combination (CMB) were also analyzed. All the six LOD series showed an overall correlation exceeding 0.99 for the complete interval of almost 3 years. Even for the shortest interval of only 3 days, the correlation was still higher than 0.60. The combined AAM + OAM series with inverted barometer corrections always gave the best correlation. The Rapid Service LOD of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) compared the best at all intervals but the shortest one, where the CMB LOD was the best with a correlation of 0.73, followed by both IGS series with a correlation of about 0.71. Prior to all the correlation analyses, in addition to the removal of all the known (conventional) LOD tidal variations with periods ranging from 5.6 days to 18.6 years and lunar fortnightly and monthly oceanic tides, small corrections of lunar fortnightly and monthly tides, semi-annual, annual periodical signals, drift and scale had to be estimated with respect to the combined AAM + OAM series.     

Influence of the modified global ocean tide model with local tides of East and South China Seas on load gravity in China and its neighbor area

Introduction With the development of science and technology, the accuracy of gravity measurement is im-proved. The gravity observation with FG5 gravimeter has reached accuracy of μ magnitude. And the high accurate superconducting gravimeter can detect the tiny signal of 10?2 μ magnitude in frequency domain. With the high-accuracy gravity observation on Earth′s surface, the Earth′s tidal parameters can be determined precisely. And the observations can also be used to invert the struc-ture…     

Weak tidal correlation of NW-Bohemia/Vogtland earthquake swarms

We analyze the possible effect of solid Earth tidal stresses upon a vertical strike-slip fault in NW-Bohemia/Vogtland, central Europe, typical by occurrence of swarm earthquakes. The horizontal components of solid Earth tidal stresses were found strongly to prevail and to reach the level of 2 kPa. We examined tidal triggering as influence of tidal stresses to launching the swarm activity in relative absence of other stress disturbances. The onset times of 46 swarms of mostly M_L < 3 earthquakes that occurred in the period 1991–2005 displayed an increased occurrence near the fortnightly maximum of tidal extensive normal stress. The statistical test however did not prove a statistically significant correlation indicating a triggering effect of fault extension due to tidal loading. We also examined tidal effects to the already running seismic activity of the prominent 2000 swarm by comparing the tidal stress distribution in the investigated period with the distribution of tidal stresses in the occurrence times of each earthquake. The results show that these distributions are almost similar, which indicates that individual earthquakes occur independent of tidal stresses. The unclear tidal correlation of the swarm seismicity may be interpreted by small amplitudes and rates of tidal stress changes compared to the amplitudes and rates of coseismic stress perturbations and of pressure bursts of deep generated fluids.     

Two models of parameterized convection for medium-sized icy satellites of Saturn

A parameterized theory of convection is developed for 6 medium-size icy satellites (MIS) of Saturn. It is an extension of the research concerning the Mimas-Enceladus paradox. Two parameterizations of dimensionless temperature are used in the model and a new constrain for tidal heating is included. It is found that the basic results of the model are independent of particulars of the parameterizations. The new constrain considerably reduces the space of possible values of the material parameter of satellites but the two basic conclusions are unchanged, i.e.: (a) the thermal state of the considered MIS can be explained in the frame of the uniform model that includes radiogenic and tidal heating; (b) the theory indicates that endogenic activity of some MIS was (or is) a result of a specific ‘excited’, high temperature state of a given satellite. The theory could be also used for estimation of tidal heating.     

A new family of orthonormal wavelet bases

In this contribution we introduce the concept of multiresolution analysis (MRA) and give an explanation of the relationship between MRA and orthonormal wavelet basis. The construction of the orthonormal B-spline wavelet bases is described in detail. We extend the B-splines to `non-integral order' cases and thus obtain a new family of orthonormal wavelet bases for the space L ²(R). Some good properties of the new wavelets are demonstrated. The new wavelet family gives satisfactory performances in our research projects including seismic signal compression and gravity tide data processing. Received: 19 July 1996 / Accepted: 17 November 1997     

Vertical velocities associated with gravity waves measured in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere with the EISCAT VHF radar

The EISCAT VHF radar (69.4°N, 19.1°E) has been used to record vertical winds at mesopause heights on a total of 31 days between June 1990 and January 1993. The data reveal a motion field dominated by quasi-monochromatic gravity waves with representative apparent periods of 30–40 min, amplitudes of up to 2.5 m s^–1 and large vertical wavelength. In some instances waves appear to be ducted. Vertical profiles of the vertical-velocity variance display a variety of forms, with little indication of systematic wave growth with height. Daily mean variance profiles evaluated for consecutive days of recording show that the general shape of the variance profiles persists over several days. The mean variance evaluated over a 10 km height range has values from 1.2 m²s^–2 to 6.5 m²s^–2 and suggests a semi-annual seasonal cycle with equinoctial minima and solsticial maxima. The mean vertical wavenumber spectrum evaluated at heights up to 86 km has a slope (spectral index) of -1.36 ± 0.2, consistent with observations at lower heights but disagreeing with the predictions of a number of saturation theories advanced to explain gravity-wave spectra. The spectral slopes evaluated for individual days have a range of values, and steeper slopes are observed in summer than in winter. The spectra also appear to be generally steeper on days with lower mean vertical-velocity variance.     

Spectral characteristics of spring arctic mesosphere dynamics

The spring of 1997 has represented a stable period of operation for the joint University of Tromsø/University of Saskatchewan MF radar, being between refurbishment and upgrades. We examine the horizontal winds from the February to June inclusive and also include estimates of energy dissipation rates derived from signal fading times and presented as upper limits on the turbulent energy dissipation rate, . Here we address the periodicity in the dynamics of the upper mesosphere for time scales from hours to one month. Thus, we are able to examine the changes in the spectral signature of the mesospheric dynamics during the transition from winter to summer states.     

The Effect Of Zonal Tides On The DynamicalEllipticity Of The EarthAnd Its Influence On The Nutation

In this paper, the expressions of variations of the dynamical ellipticity and the principal moments of inertia due to the deformations produced by the zonal part of the tidal potential are obtained. Starting from these expressions, we have studied from equations related to Hamiltonian theory, their effects on the nutation and finally we have evaluated numerically such influences, with a level of truncation at 0.1 μas. Thus we have shown that some coefficients are quite large with respect to the usual accuracy of up-to-date observations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Angular momentum of Arctic Ocean tides

Oceanic tidal angular momentum (OTAM) is calculated for the four major tides of the Arctic Ocean, based on the tidal elevations and current velocities from a recent two-dimensional numerical hydrodynamic model. The presented OTAM tables are meant to be complementary to other modeling studies that use satellite altimetry (which cannot observe Arctic Ocean tides because of ice cover and limited satellite inclinations). Although the Arctic Ocean's influence on earth rotation is, as may be expected, relatively small, the rapid advancement of the subject now calls for such small contributions to be explicitly accounted for. Received: 22 January 1996; Accepted: 5 December 1996