Combinations of Earth-orientation measurements: SPACE97, COMB97, and POLE97

Independent Earth-orientation measurements taken by the space-geodetic techniques of lunar and satellite laser ranging, very-long-baseline interferometry, and the global positioning system have been combined using a Kalman filter. The resulting combined Earth-orientation series, SPACE97, consists of values and uncertainties for universal time, polar motion, and their rates spanning the period 28 September 1976 to 3 January 1998 at daily intervals. The space-geodetic measurements used to generate SPACE97 have then been combined with optical astrometric measurements to form two additional combined Earth-orientation series: (1) COMB97, consisting of values and uncertainties for universal time, polar motion, and their rates spanning the period 20 January 1962 to 1 January 1998 at 5-day intervals, and (2) POLE97, consisting of values and uncertainties for polar motion and its rate spanning the period 20 January 1900 to 21 December 1997 at monthly intervals. Received: 10 August 1998 / Accepted: 31 May 1999