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[1] The atmosphere, hydrosphere, and cryosphere form a fully coupled climate system. This system exhibits a number of large‒scale phenomena, such as the El Nino–Southern Oscillation, the Asian Monsoon, the North Atlantic Oscillation, and the Madden‒Julian Oscillation. While these modes of variability are not exactly periodic, they are oscillatory in character, and their state is monitored using so‒called climate indices. Each of these scalar indices is a combination of several climate variables. Here we use a comprehensive set of 25 climate indices for time intervals that range between 1948 and 2011 and estimate an optimal set of lags between these indices to maximize their correlation. We show that most of the index pairs drawn from this set present a significant correlation on interannual time scales. It is also shown that on average, about two thirds of the total variability in each index can be described by using only the four leading principal components of the entire set of lagged indices. Our index set's leading orthogonal modes exhibit several interannual frequencies and capture separately variability associated with the North Atlantic and the North Pacific. These modes are associated, in turn, with large‒scale variations of sea surface temperatures.

The relationship of intraseasonal variability to ENSO is investigated using daily length-of-day (LOD), atmospheric angular momentum (AAM), west equatorial Pacific (WPAC) wind stress and monthly Nino3 SST data for the years 1976-1999. Strong coherence is found for LOD, AAM, and their residual (representative of oceanic angular momentum and / or unmodeled/underrepresented atmospheric variability) with the regional wind stress at periods near 75 days, a preferred time scale for WPAC Kelvin wave generation. Amplitude envelopes of LOD and AAM filtered at similar periods (60-100 days) are significantly correlated with Nino3 anomalies at an SST lag of 8 months; the LOD-AAM residual correlates at a shorter lag (5 months), with the difference representing an oceanic spin-up time. No significant correlations are found using a band (36-60 days) typifying the global Madden-Julian Oscillation, accounting for the lack of previous MJO-ENSO correlations in the literature.

The axial component of atmospheric angular momentum (AAM) reached a decadal minimum during the winter of 1989, when the cool (La Nina) phase of the ENSO cycle and the positive phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the related Arctic Oscillation (AO) were active. Here, we examine the global atmospheric dynamics associated with this event from the torque point of view. It will be shown how mountain torques on North America, South America and Europe related to these oscillations led to the AAM minimum, partly compensated by a positive ENSO-related mountain torque over Asia. The friction torque had more nearly equal positive and negative anomalies associated with ENSO and NAO forcing, respectively, and made a smaller, offsetting contribution to the global AAM anomaly during this episode.

The impact of the 1997-1998 ENSO event is presented in context of Earth-atmosphere angular momentum exchange utilizing length of day (LOD), Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and atmospheric angular momentum (AAM) data from 1970 to 1998; comparisons are made with previous events.

The geocenter variations reflect the global scale mass redistribution and the interaction between the solid Earth and the mass load. Determination of the geocenter variations due to surface mass load from various geophysical sources places constraints on the variations of the origin of terrestrial reference frame, and provides the expected range of variations for space-geodesy. Our results suggest that on the time scale from 30 days to 10 years the primary variability of geocenter variations from atmosphere, ocean and surface ground water occurs on the annual and semiannual scales. The lumped sum of these surface mass load induced geocenter variations is within 1 cm level.

Conservation of angular momentum dictates that as the wind-driven axial atmospheric angular momentum changes, so will the length-of-day (LOD). In particular, as the strength of the seasonal zonal winds change, so should the strength of the seasonal LOD signals. Here, observed changes in the strengths of the annual and semiannual LOD signals during 1963-1991 are analyzed and shown to be both significantly correlated (at the 99% significance level) with the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), and to exhibit trends of comparable magnitude but opposite signs. This reported correlation between the SOI and changes in the amplitude of the seasonal LOD signals demonstrates a linkage between seasonal LOD (and hence seasonal zonal wind) variability and the El Nino / Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. Furthermore, this study suggests that observed variations in the amplitudes of the seasonal LOD signals can be used to study changes in the strengths of the seasonal atmospheric zonal winds on interannual to decadal and longer time scales.

Monthly mean gravitational field parameters (denoted here as C(sub even)) that represent linear combinations of the primarily even degree zonal spherical harmonic coefficients of the Earth's gravitational field have been recovered using LAGEOS I data and are compared with those derived from gridded global surface pressure data of the National meteorological center (NMC) spanning 1983-1992. The effect of equilibrium ocean tides and surface water variations are also considered. Atmospheric pressure and surface water fluctuations are shown to be the dominant cause of observed annual C(sub even) variations. Closure with observations is seen at the 1sigma level when atmospheric pressure, ocean tide and surface water effects are include. Equilibrium ocean tides are shown to be the main source of excitation at the semiannual period with closure at the 1sigma level seen when both atmospheric pressure and ocean tide effects are included. The inverted barometer (IB) case is shown to give the best agreement with the observation series. The potential of the observed C(sub even) variations for monitoring mass variations in the polar regions of the Earth and the effect of the land-ocean mask in the IB calculation are discussed.

[1] At seasonal and shorter periods the solid Earth and its overlying geophysical fluids form a closed dynamical system, which (except for tidal forcing) conserves its total angular momentum. While atmospheric effects dominate changes in the Earth's rate of rotation and hence length-of-day (LOD) on these time scales, the addition of oceanic angular momentum (OAM) estimates has been shown to improve closure of the LOD budget in a statistical sense. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, the signature of a specific, sub-monthly ocean current fluctuation on the Earth's rotation rate, coinciding with recently-reported anomalies which developed in southeast Pacific surface temperature and bottom pressure fields during late 2009. Our results show that concurrent variations in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), which saw a sharp drop and recovery in zonal transport during a two-week period in November, were strong enough to cause a detectable change in LOD following the removal of atmospheric angular momentum (AAM) computed from the Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) database. The strong OAM variations driving the LOD-AAM changes were diagnosed from ocean state estimates of the Consortium for Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) and involved roughly equal contributions from the current and pressure terms, with in situ confirmation for the latter provided by tide-corrected bottom pressure recorder data from the South Drake Passage site of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current Levels by Altimetry and Island Measurements (ACCLAIM) network.

Global Positioning System (GPS) data were used to estimate Earth rotation variations over an 11-day period during the Epoch '92 campaign in the summer of 1992. Earth orientation was measured simultaneously by several very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) networks. GPS and VLBI estimates of UT1 with 3-hour time resolution were then compared and analyzed. The high frequency behavior of both data sets is similar, although drifts between the two series of approximately 0.1 ms over 2-5 days are evident. The geodetic results were also compared with models for UT1 fluctuations at tidal periods and with estimates of atmospheric angular momentum made at 6-hour intervals. Most of the geodetic signal in the diurnal and semidiurnal frequency bands can be attributed to tidal processes, whereas UT1 variations over a few days are mostly atmospheric in origin.

Seasonal variations in the speed of the Earth's rotation manifest themselves as fluctuations in the length of the day (LOD) with an amplitude of about 1000 microseconds. We know from previous work that at least 95% of these variations can be accounted for in terms of angular momentum exchanged between the atmosphere and the solid Earth. Here we examine the respective contributions of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and the global oceans to the Earth's seasonal angular momentum budget, using in situ data from the Drake Passage and results from both the oceanic regional model (Fine Resolution Antarctic Model -- FRAM) of Webb et al. (1991) and the global ocanic model of Maier-Reimer et al. (1993) as analyzed by Brosche et al. (1990). The estimated annual contribution of the ACC (2-4 microsec) is much smaller than the total variation in the oceanic models or the existing LOD-AAM residual (both approximately 15-20 microsec). The estimated semi-annual ACC contribution (3-8 microsec) is offset by counter-current further north in both oceanic models, which exhibit larger semi-annual variations in planetary angular momentum. Further refinements in the Earth's seasonal angular momentum budget, therefore, will require the full (planetary plus relative) contribution of the global oceans in addition to that of the ACC.

Data from a worldwide Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking experiment have been used to determine variations in earth rotation (UT1-UTC) over a time period of three weeks. Kalman filtering and smoothing enabled changes in UT1-UTC over intervals of 2 to 24 hrs to be detected with the GPS data. Internal consistency checks and comparisons with other solutions from very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) and satellite laser ranging (SLR) indicate that the GPS UT1-UTC estimates are accurate to about 2 cm. Comparison of GPS-estimated variations in UT1-UTC with 2-hr time resolution over 4 days with predicted variations computed from diurnal and semidiurnal oceanic tidal contributions strongly suggests that the observed periodic sub-daily variations of about 0.1 msec are largely of tidal origin.

[1] A broad consensus has emerged regarding the importance of both ocean mass and heat content changes for global sea level (GSL) rise, but their respective contributions to interannual GSL variability are less certain. Here, we use changes in the Earth's dynamic oblateness (J 2 ) to infer land ice contributions to GSL variability during a 10.5-year period encompassing the intense 1997―98 ENSO event. By accounting for heat content and water mass distribution changes in the oceans, atmosphere and land hydrology using observational and model results, we isolate unexplained residuals in J 2 and GSL that are well-correlated with each other and with melt-season temperature and mass balance anomalies in Alaska, a particularly active and well-studied glaciated region. The close agreement between residual GSL and oblateness variations found in our results indicates that the latter can provide a useful proxy for changes in high-latitude land ice when corrections for other sources are applied.

[1] The fluid core motion cannot be observed directly, however, it can be deduced from magnetic observations. This motion can be approximated as a set of coaxial cylinders rotating along the Earth rotation axis. Our study shows that the actual motion in the core corresponds to a set of oscillations propagating from the core-mantle boundary to the inner core (with diminishing amplitude) at period of 85, 50, 35 and 28 years, respectively. These oscillations appear to be very robust in our study, moreover two weaker modes have also been isolated and require further study. Zatman and Bloxham (1997) isolated two modes with periods that correspond to our first two modes. Comparing the theoretically predicted modes of Mound and Buffett (2007), all three analyses (one theoretically based and two based on geomagnetic observations) agree on the periods of the isolated modes; this concurrence is exceptional and provides strong evidence of the existence of the modes.

[1] Interannual length-of-day variations and ENSO indices such as the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and Nino 3.4 SST are well correlated as a consequence of angular momentum conservation. During an El Nino event, the westerly winds increase, which raises the atmospheric angular momentum (AAM); as a result, the solid Earth must slow down, which increases the duration of the day (length-of-day: LOD). However, a lag has been observed with the SOI and Nino 3.4 SST leading the LOD and AAM series by one–two months; to date no dynamical explanation has been offered. The dominant excitation mechanism of interannual LOD is the wind term, driven largely by thermal winds arising from the poleward gradient of tropical temperature (TT). We show that the TT gradient (TTG), which peaks 1–2 months after the Nino 3.4 SST anomaly, is the source of the thermal winds that drive the LOD anomaly and account for this well-known ENSO-Earth rotation lag.

We investigate the source of poleward propagating atmospheric zonal wind anomalies, originating at the equator and penetrating to high latitudes in both hemispheres in conjunction with ENSO [Dickey et al.,1992], and report the discovery of similar variability on decadal and longer timescales. Since atmospheric dissipation times are generally on the order of a month or less, we examine the ocean as a 'memory' source for these globally coherent anomalies. This hypothesis is substantiated by the observation of complementaryoscillation in the sea surface temperature (SST) field; further, we detect a robust decadal variability (~1012 yrs)in both the SST and contemporaneous atmospheric angular momentum (AAM) series. Analyzing GISST SST data beginning in 1902, we confirm this decadal mode and find signatures of longer (multidecadal) SST variability centered in the equatorial and North Pacific.

[1] All three components of annual atmospheric torque are analyzed with a focus on understanding the contributions from various sources and the physical interactions involved. The annual variations of the equatorial component are dominated by the torque on Earth's ellipticity, with the X component mainly due to an anomaly over the Himalayas, and the Y component associated with pressure anomalies over the North Pacific Ocean. The axial annual component is due to the combined effect of friction and mountain torque, whose amplitudes are at the same order of magnitude with the friction term being larger. Partial cancellation of the mountain torque over Asia and North America is effected by the out-of phase contribution of the Andes (South America having the opposite seasonal cycle to Asia and North America).