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Relationship between free core nutation and geomagnetic jerks

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Abstract

Recent studies have indicated a correlation between Earth’s free core nutation (FCN) and geomagnetic jerks (GMJs). However, some uncertainties still need to be resolved before their relationship can be confirmed. The variations in the amplitude and phase of the FCN result from the comprehensive influence of the surface fluid layer and core–mantle couplings, which makes its correlation with GMJs difficult to verify. The FCN period mainly depends on the inertia coupling and the dissipative couplings (such as viscous, electromagnetic and topographic couplings) at the core–mantle boundary according to the theory of Earth rotation. Whatever the GMJ mechanism, it is most likely to affect the FCN by changing the core–mantle couplings. This study was conducted to effectively determine variations in the FCN period by considering atmospheric and oceanic effects, investigate any correlation between the two phenomena, and analyze how the FCN relates to GMJs. Using the normal time–frequency transform, we extracted signals in the nutation band from the atmospheric and oceanic angular momentum functions. We used the broadband Liouville equations to estimate the atmospheric and oceanic effects on nutation terms. Using a sliding window of 2 years, we fitted five nutation terms most affected by FCN resonance from the celestial pole offsets with FCN model removed. The FCN period variation was estimated by using weighted least square method. The results indicated a correlation between the FCN and GMJ. Further, we analyzed the relationship between the geomagnetic fluctuations and FCN based on both the core–mantle couplings and the possible GMJ mechanism.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2014CB845902) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (41774092, 41621091, 41321063, 41274085, 41304058, 41374084 and 41574072). We are very thankful to the IERS and the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry for providing the EAMF and VLBI data. We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.cn) for English language editing. Also we are very thankful to Editor and three anonymous reviewers for their remarks and suggestions which were helpful in preparing the revised version.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geodesy and Earth’s Dynamics, Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430077, China

    Xiaoming Cui, Heping Sun, Jianqiao Xu, Jiangcun Zhou & Xiaodong Chen

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Heping Sun

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  1. Xiaoming Cui
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  2. Heping Sun
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CUI participated in the design of the study, carried out the data analysis, and drafted the manuscript. SUN and XU participated in the design of the study. ZHOU and CHEN carried out part of data analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiaoming Cui.

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Cui, X., Sun, H., Xu, J. et al. Relationship between free core nutation and geomagnetic jerks. J Geod 94, 38 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-020-01367-7

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