Abstract
Two very precise data sets, i.e. the variation of length of day (LOD) determined by space techniques and the geopotential coefficient ( Δ J 2) derived from satellite laser ranging (SLR), are used to study the decadal fluctuations in LOD. Instead of considering complex geophysical mechanisms, the authors use the observed Δ J 2 to calculate the contribution of mass redistribution of the Earth and find that this contribution amounts to 4% of amplitude of LOD at decadal time scale and hence is not large enough to excite the fluctuations. The results also demonstrate that the decadal fluctuations in LOD mainly come from the excitations of internal torques or relative angular momentum in the Earth.
Published Version
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