Joint Working Group on Geodetic effects of non-tidal oceanic processes

 

R. Gross

 

The IAG/IAPSO Joint Working Group (JWG) on Geodetic Effects of Nontidal Oceanic Processes was formed at the XXII General Assembly of the IUGG that was held in Birmingham during July, 1999 for the purpose of: (1) promoting investigations of the effects of nontidal oceanic processes on the Earth’s rotation, deformation, gravitational field, and geocenter; and (2) fostering interactions between the geodetic and oceanographic communities in order to gain greater understanding of these effects. Since it was formed, five meetings-of-opportunity of the JWG have been held: (1) on December 15, 1999 in conjunction with the 1999 Fall Meeting of the AGU that was held in San Francisco, California; (2) on April 27, 2000 in conjunction with the XXV General Assembly of the EGS that was held in Nice, France; (3) on March 29, 2001 in conjunction with the XXVI General Assembly of the EGS that was held in Nice, France; (4) on April 25, 2002 in conjunction with the XXVII General Assembly of the EGS that was held in Nice, France; and (5) on April 7, 2003 in conjunction with the 2003 Joint Assembly of the EGS-AGU-EUG that was held in Nice, France. Summaries of the latter four meetings have been or will soon be published in the IAG Newsletter that appears in the Journal of Geodesy.

 

In the last few years a number of exciting developments have occurred in the area of ocean/solid Earth interactions. The importance of oceanic processes to exciting polar motion in general (Furuya & Hamano 1998; Ponte et al. 1998; Johnson et al. 1999; Nastula & Ponte 1999; Chen et al. 2000; Nastula et al. 2000, 2002; Wünsch 2000, 2002a, 2002b; Ponte et al. 2001, 2002; Thomas et al. 2001; Leuliette et al. 2002a; Ponte and Ali 2002) and the Chandler wobble in particular (Celaya et al. 1999; Ponte & Stammer 1999; Gross 2000; Brzezinski & Nastula 2002; Brzezinski et al., 2002b; Gross et al. 2003; Liao et al. 2003) has been demonstrated by applying ocean models to Earth rotation studies. In addition, ocean models have enabled the relatively smaller, but still detectable, influence of oceanic processes on the length-of-day (lod) to be studied (Marcus et al. 1998; Johnson et al. 1999; Chen et al. 2000; Kakuta et al. 2000; Ponte & Stammer 2000; Höpfner 2001; Ponte and Ali 2002; Ponte et al. 2001, 2002). The oceanic torques acting on the solid Earth are also being studied (de Viron et al. 2002; Fujita et al. 2002; Hughes 2002). As global ocean general circulation models continue to improve, and ocean data assimilation systems develop (Ponte et al. 2001), more progress can be expected.

 

Since the formation of the Joint Working Group, the effect of oceanic mass redistribution on the orbits of satellites (Chen et al. 1999a; Johnson et al. 2001a), the Earth’s gravitational field (Cazenave et al. 1999; Cheng & Tapley 1999; Gruber et al. 2000; Foldvary and Fukuda 2001a, 2001b, 2002; Johnson et al. 2001b; Leuliette et al. 2002b; Wünsch et al. 2002; Reigber et al. 2003), geocenter (Cazenave et al. 1999; Chen et al. 1999b; Bouillé et al. 2000; Johnson et al. 2001b; Crétaux et al. 2002), surface gravity measurements (Sato et al. 2001), and station positions (Mangiarotti et al. 2001) have also been studied. The launch of CHAMP and GRACE will enable even more detailed studies of the influence of the oceans on the Earth’s gravitational field (Wahr et al. 1998). Furthermore, CHAMP and GRACE will directly measure the mass term of the Earth rotation excitation functions (Gross 2001, 2003) as well as fluctuations in ocean-bottom pressure (Ponte 1999). Thus, the next few years should prove as exciting as have the last few years in studying the geodetic effects of nontidal oceanic processes.

 

As can be seen in the studies of, for example, the EOPs (Earth Orientation Parameters) and the change in the J2 term of the global gravity field, the oceans play an important role in Earth system dynamics (ESD). Measurements of sea surface height (SSH) variability obtained from satellite altimetry have revolutionized our knowledge of the role of the oceans. For the ESD, the important physical quantity directly affecting its change is the mass redistribution in the oceans, not the change in the SSH itself, because, as is well known, the observed SSH variations from satellite altimeters include as a major part steric changes due to thermal and salinity changes in the oceans which do not produce any gravity effects. By combining the altimeter data with the data obtained from satellite gravity missions such as CHAMP, GRACE and GOCE, we can expect to separate the steric changes and to reveal the true mass transport in the oceans. On the one hand, the validation and calibration of satellite data based on observations on the ground, in the ocean and on the sea floor are important for interpreting the satellite data because the observation data by satellites are a result of integrating over many related phenomena. More over, for the data obtained from the gravity satellites, the effect of air pressure changes on the ocean surface is contaminated by an effect of aliasing. In order to study the mass transport in the oceans and the aliasing effect in the satellite gravity data due to air mass changes on the sea surface, it is recommended to develop network campaign observations with ocean bottom pressure gauges at selected locations in the world oceans. An ocean region where the El Niño effect appears is a candidate for this observation purpose and the network should be designed so that we can detect the mass transport in not only the east-west direction but also the north-south direction. Reports from individual JWG members on their activities are given below:

 

Brzezinski. 

We studied the nontidal oceanic influences on Earth rotation by using the methods which had been earlier developed and applied for estimating atmospheric effects (Brzezinski et al. 2002a). We focused our attention on the excitation of the 14-month free Chandler wobble. By using an 11-year time series of the ocean angular momentum (OAM) we concluded (Brzezinski and Nastula 2002) that within the limits of accuracy the coupled system atmosphere/ocean fully explains the observed Chandler wobble during the period 1985-1996. Similar study using a 50-year OAM series (Brzezinski et al. 2002b) yielded less promising results, which could be attributed to the differences in the underlying ocean circulation models. Our first attempt to estimate the nontidal oceanic contribution to nutation (Petrov et al. 1999) showed that the OAM series produced so far were still not adequate for studying the diurnal and subdiurnal effects. The most important tasks for the future within the subject of the oceanic excitation of Earth rotation were pointed out in a review paper (Brzezinski 2003).

 

B. Chao. 

The Space Geodesy research group at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center made numerous studies on oceans' roles in changing the Earth's rotation and low-degree gravity field. In addition to the global effects, three specific ocean basins have been targeted: North Atlantic (in association with the North Atlantic Oscillation), Mediterranean Sea (a joint project with scientists from the University of Alicante, Spain), and the extratropical Pacific (in searching for the causes of the 1998 anomaly in the Earth's J2 series found in satellite-laser-ranging data). Three main types of data are examined: (1) TOPEX/Poseidon altimetry data, (2) sea-surface temperature data, (3) ocean general circulation model output. Extensive use of the Empirical Orthogonal Function / Principal Component numerical technique has been made. Progress has been reported at various international meetings, including the AGU, EGS, and T/P SWT. Publications include Chao and Zhou (1999), Johnson et al. (1999, 2001b), Chen et al. (2000), O’Connor et al. (2000), Chao et al. (2001), and Fujita et al. (2002).

 

T. Johnson. 

The U.S. Naval Observatory in an effort to improve its predictions of UT1-UTC examined the usefulness of introducing atmospheric angular momentum data into the EOP combination and prediction process. The study showed that the atmosphere could not account for all of the variability on time scales ranging from six days to 15 days. Using the Parallel Ocean Climate Model (POCM), we determined that this variability was the result of non-tidal ocean variability (Johnson et al. 2003). These results along with the results of earlier studies (Ponte et al. 1998; Johnson 1998; Johnson et al. 1999; Ponte et al. 2002) indicate that the ocean appears to excite variations in Earth's rotation on time scales ranging from a few days to a few years. In another study, Johnson et al. (2001b) indicated that non-tidal oceanic variability could account for some of the perturbations in the orbits of the Lageos I and Lageos II satellites on timescales of several days to a few years that result from temporal variations in the Earth's gravitational field but that are unexplained by the atmosphere. Furthermore, it was shown by Johnson et al. (2001a) that the effects of oceanic variability could be observed in the orbit perturbations of GPS satellites. We have also shown that the intermediate and lower layers of global ocean circulation models appear to require much more than 30 years to spin up (Johnson 1999). However, the application of sea level adjustments, also known as the Greatbatch correction, effectively removes most of this effect as well as the effects of the Boussinesq approximation. These results indicate that the examination of trends in momentum would be a better test of model spin-up than the use of kinetic energy.

 

 

J. Nastula. 

It was shown that oceanic excitation, when added to atmospheric excitation, leads to substantial improvements in the agreement with observed polar motion excitation at seasonal and intraseasonal periods (Nastula and Ponte 1999). It was also shown by Brzezinski and Nastula (2002) that variations of the angular momentum of the coupled atmosphere/ocean system (with a little bit higher contribution from the ocean source) can explain within the error limits the observed Chandler motion during the 1985-1996 interval. In more recent studies, Brzezinski et al. (2002b) extended the analysis of Brzezinski and Nastula (2002) by using a 50-year time series of OAM estimated by Ponte (2000, personal communication). The obtained estimate of the oceanic excitation power, 18.1 mas2/ cpy, is in good agreement with the residual excitation derived from a simultaneous use of polar motion and atmospheric angular momentum data, 20.3 mas2/ cpy. Regional patterns of atmospheric and oceanic excitation were analysed separately and compared with each other (Nastula et al. 2000, 2002). The results confirm recent findings that oceans supplement the atmosphere as an important source of polar motion excitation. Analysis of regional AAM and OAM signals were performed for monthly and longer periods (Nastula et al. 2000) and for periods shorter than 10 days (Nastula et al. 2002). The influence of specific geographic areas on polar motion excitation was discovered. Regional characteristics of short period excitation of polar motion are generally in agreement with those obtained from analyses performed for signals at monthly and longer periods. The AAM and OAM signals associated with pressure terms were found to be of the same order of magnitude, while signals associated with winds were substantially larger then those associated with ocean currents. The strongest polar motion excitation due to variability of atmospheric pressure, oceanic pressure and wind terms is connected with some specific areas over northern and southern mid-latitudes. The spatial pattern of pressure plus inverted barometer (IB) term is dominated, however, by maxima over land areas with Eurasia being especially important. Oceanic excitation due to currents is strong in the North Pacific and the Southern Oceans. Variability in oceanic bottom pressure tends to be large in mid and high latitude regions.

 

R. Ponte. 

Ponte et al. (2002) addressed the influence of climate variability on ocean angular momentum (OAM). Possible anthropogenically induced signals included trends and changes in the seasonal cycle of OAM, but their effects on Earth rotation were relatively weak. In contrast, OAM signals related to natural climate variability were found to be important sources of excitation, particularly for the annual, Chandler, and Markowitz wobbles. Ponte and Ali (2002) demonstrated the role of OAM signals for excitation of sub-weekly polar motion and length-of-day variations and the importance of deviations from an inverted barometer response to atmospheric pressure at these rapid time scales. Uncertainties in the atmospheric pressure fields remain a problem in determining those signals (Ponte and Ray 2002; Ponte and Dorandeu 2003). Similar uncertainties in seasonal wind stress torques over the ocean, which affect OAM and the planetary angular momentum budget, were discussed in Ponte et al. (2003).

 

T. Sato. 

Differential GPS observations were conducted on the fast ice in Lutzow-Holm Bay, Antarctica (Aoki et al. 2000). The vertical displacement, was clearly detected. Tidal variation derived from GPS showed good agreement with those from pressure gauges. GPS measurements of the vertical displacement of fast ice near Syowa Station, Antarctica, were conducted between April and December 1998 (Aoki et al. 2002). The GPS derived sea level, combined with observed sea ice thickness, supported a conventional bottom pressure gauge result with an RMS error of 0.007 m. Coherent sea level variations were clearly detected for five coastal tide gauge data around Antarctica on intraseasonal time scales (Aoki 2002). The coherent variations had significant negative correlations with an index of the atmospheric annular mode variation (Antarctic Oscillation). Important new findings from 14 months of observations of ocean bottom pressure variations in the southeastern Pacific are reported by Fujimoto et al. (2003). One is a pressure increase starting in December 1997 at almost the same time as the termination of the 1997-98 El Niño. It is also coincident with a remarkable change in the J2 term of the Earth's gravity field. These results suggest that the El Niño might have brought about mass redistribution in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The other feature in the observations is a local pressure variation across the spreading axis of the ultra-fast spreading southern East Pacific Rise. It is estimated that the seafloor near the spreading axis was depressed at a rate of about 20 mm/month. The gravity effects of sea surface height (SSH) variations were studied by Fukuda et al. (1999). They applied the EOF (Empirical Orthogonal Function) analysis to both SSH data and induced gravity changes and showed that one of the EOF components was strongly correlated with ENSO (El Niño/Southern Oscillation) like SSH variations. Based on the POCM (Parallel Ocean Climate Model, Stammer et al. 1996) and the TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) altimeter, the effects of SSH variations on gravity observations were estimated (Sato et al. 2001). The thermal steric component of SSH variations was estimated by assuming a simple linear relationship between the time variations in the SSH and SST fields. The predicted gravity changes at the three observation sites (i.e. Esashi in Japan, Canberra in Australia and Syowa Station in Antarctica) were compared with the actual data obtained from the superconducting gravimeters installed at these three sites. We have also tried to investigate the effects of SSH on the gravity observations in other frequency bands. Our computations suggest that ENSO-like ocean oscillations contribute 2 to 3 microgals peak-to-peak amplitude to gravity variations in the equatorial Pacific at the maximum.

 

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Aoki, S., T. Ozawa, K. Doi, and K. Shibuya, GPS observation of the sea level  variation in Lutzow-Holm Bay, Antarctica, Geophys. Res. Lett., 27, 2285-2288, 2000.

 

Aoki, S., K. Shibuya, A. Masuyama, T. Ozawa, and K. Doi, Evaluation of seasonal sea level variation at Syowa Station, Antarctica, using GPS observations, J. Oceanogr., 58, 519-523, 2002.

 

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Fujita, M., B. F. Chao, B. V. Sanchez, and T. J. Johnson, Oceanic torques on solid Earth and their effects on Earth rotation, J. Geophys. Res., 107, 10.1029/2001JB000339, 2002.

 

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Gross, R. S., The excitation of the Chandler wobble, Geophys. Res. Lett., 27, 2329-2332, 2000.

 

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Höpfner, J., Atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrological contributions to seasonal variations in length of day, J. Geodesy, 75, 137-150, 2001.

 

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Johnson, T. J., The effects of the correction for mass non-conservation in global ocean circulation models on predicted oceanic angular momentum variability, EOS, Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union, 46, 80, 1999.

 

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Ponte, R. M., A preliminary model study of the large-scale seasonal cycle in bottom pressure over the global ocean, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 1289-1300, 1999.

 

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