Analyzing the Seasonal Deformation of the Sichuan–Yunnan Region Using GNSS, GRACE, and Precipitation Data

Abstract

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) time series non-constructive deformation shows significant seasonal variations, and the study of its periodic term components and possible physical mechanisms has important theoretical significance and application value for the accurate use of the data and more in-depth analysis. In this paper, wavelet transform (WT) is used to extract the seasonal terms of 24 GNSS continuous station time series, Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) displacement time series and precipitation data in the Sichuan–Yunnan area, and the three data sets are compared and analyzed in terms of amplitude, phase and cross-correlation coefficient (CC), and the results show that the seasonal deformation in the area is strongly related to the precipitation variation. GNSS and GRACE have good consistency in the vertical component, and the seasonal variation is mainly related to the hydrological load; the difference in the horizontal component is obvious, and the amplitude of the seasonal term of GNSS is larger than that of GRACE, indicating that the resolution of GRACE in the horizontal component is lower than that of the vertical component, and the overall estimation accuracy is lower than that of GNSS. There are significant seasonal terms of annual and semi-annual cycles for the three GNSS components, and the vertical component mainly shows the seasonal deformation of the annual cycle with the strongest seasonality; the horizontal component mainly shows the deformation of the semi-annual cycle, and the seasonality of the N component is stronger than that of the E component, and they are negatively correlated with a coefficient of −0.90.