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Long-Term Evaluation of Ocean Tidal Variation Models of Polar Motion and UT1

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Abstract

Recent improvements in the development of VLBI (very long baseline interferometry) and other space geodetic techniques such as the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) require very precise a-priori information of short-period (daily and sub-daily) Earth rotation variations. One significant contribution to Earth rotation is caused by the diurnal and semi-diurnal ocean tides. Within this work, we developed a new model for the short-period ocean tidal variations in Earth rotation, where the ocean tidal angular momentum model and the Earth rotation variation have been setup jointly. Besides the model of the short-period variation of the Earth’s rotation parameters (ERP), based on the empirical ocean tide model EOT11a, we developed also ERP models, that are based on the hydrodynamic ocean tide models FES2012 and HAMTIDE. Furthermore, we have assessed the effect of uncertainties in the elastic Earth model on the resulting ERP models. Our proposed alternative ERP model to the IERS 2010 conventional model considers the elastic model PREM and 260 partial tides. The choice of the ocean tide model and the determination of the tidal velocities have been identified as the main uncertainties. However, in the VLBI analysis all models perform on the same level of accuracy. From these findings, we conclude that the models presented here, which are based on a re-examined theoretical description and long-term satellite altimetry observation only, are an alternative for the IERS conventional model but do not improve the geodetic results.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the FWF Austrian Science Fund, Project 24813. We also thank the IVS for providing the VLBI data. Thanks also go to Wolfgang Bosch for his input.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Maria Karbon

  2. Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Kyriakos Balidakis & Harald Schuh

  3. GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg A17, Potsdam, Germany

    Tobias Nilsson & Harald Schuh

  4. Department of Applied Mathematics, EPS, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain

    Santiago Belda

  5. University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Jan Hagedoorn

Authors
  1. Maria Karbon
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  2. Kyriakos Balidakis
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  3. Santiago Belda
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  4. Tobias Nilsson
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  5. Jan Hagedoorn
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  6. Harald Schuh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Karbon.

Appendix

Appendix

In Table 7 we summarize the differences between the IERS model and the other models for the major tides. The columns headed by As and Ac show the corrections to the amplitudes of the sine and cosine terms for the relevant 71 tides in pole coordinates (xp and yp) and UT1. For the sake of concision, the values given in the table are obtained as the median and range of the correction differences between the conventional IERS model and the other models, based on FES2012, HAMTIDE12, and VEOT. Table also displays the range of amplitude corrections (i.e., the maximum difference between the maximum and minimum values). The comparison of both parameters is useful to get more insight into the magnitude.

Table 7 Median and range of the amplitude differences (i.e. the maximum difference between the maximum and minimum values) to the coefficients of sin(argument) and cos(argument) of semidiurnal variations caused by ocean tides in pole coordinates (xp and yp) and UT1 between the conventional IERS model and the other models, based on FES2012, HAMTIDE12, and VEOT
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Karbon, M., Balidakis, K., Belda, S. et al. Long-Term Evaluation of Ocean Tidal Variation Models of Polar Motion and UT1. Pure Appl. Geophys. 175, 1611–1629 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-018-1866-1

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