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Effect of the atmospheric pressure on surface displacements

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Summary

Atmospheric pressure variations with periods of some days and months can be considered as loading functions on the Earth's surface and can induce quasi-periodic surface deformations. The influence of such surface displacements is calculated by performing a convolution sum between the mass loading Green's functions and the local and regional barometric pressure data (geographically distribution in a 1° × 1° grid system extending to more than 1000km). The results for 5 stations in Europe show that the average values reach about 22.9–30.2mm depending on the ocean response: the inverted or non-inverted barometer ocean model. The corresponding admittances are 0.576–0.758mm/mbar respectively. The horizontal displacements are not negligible but always smaller. The magnitudes are about 2–3mm for East-West component and 0.5–1.0mm for North-South component.

The results of the dependence on the lateral extension of the pressure load show that the admittance for radial displacement varies from 0.250mm/mbar for a column load of 100km radius to 0.539mm/mbar for a column load of more than 1000km extension. It means that the main contribution of the loads comes from the horizontal distribution of the air pressure in a broad region.

The time dependent effects of the atmospheric pressure are also computed with the two-coefficient correction equations provided by Rabbel & Zschau (1985) using ground pressure data in a 1.125° × 1.125° grid system. The computations demonstrate that the results are in good agreement with those obtained with a convolution sum. It shows that this method can provide us with a good approximation for vertical displacement caused by the deformation of the Earth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Observatory of Belgium, Av. Circulaire 3, B-1180, Brussels, Belgium

    H. -P. Sun, B. Ducarme & V. Dehant

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  1. H. -P. Sun
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  2. B. Ducarme
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  3. V. Dehant
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Sun, H.P., Ducarme, B. & Dehant, V. Effect of the atmospheric pressure on surface displacements. Journal of Geodesy 70, 131–139 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00943688

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00943688

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