Hydrologically induced orientation variations of a tri-axial Earth's principal axes based on satellite-gravimetric and hydrological models

The Earth is a tri-axial body, with unequal principal inertia moments, A, B and C. The corresponding principal axes a, b and c are determined by the mass distribution of the Earth, and their orientations vary with the mass redistribution. In this study, the hydrologically induced variations are estimated on the basis of satellite gravimetric data, including those from satellite laser ranging (SLR) and gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE), and hydrological models from global land data assimilation system (GLDAS). The longitude variations of a and b are mainly related to the variations of the spherical harmonic coefficients C¯22 and S¯22, which have been estimated to be consisting annual variations of about 1. 6 arc seconds and 1. 8 arc seconds, respectively, from gravity data. This result is confirmed by land surface water storage provided by the GLDAS model. If the atmospheric and oceanic signals are removed from the spherical harmonic coefficients C¯21 and S¯21, the agreement of the orientation series for c becomes poor, possibly due to the inaccurate background models used in pre-processing of the satellite gravimetric data. Determination of the orientation variations may provide a better understanding of various phenomena in the study of the rotation of a tri-axial Earth.