Abstract
Atmospheric pressure loading (APL) deformation is one component of nontectonic deformation for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) time series and is a kind of deformation response caused by a redistribution of atmospheric pressure. In this paper, we present an atmospheric data processing strategy to compute the APL based on a spherical harmonic expansion of the global atmosphere pressure changes. We also provide a sample model to describe the relativity between the global atmosphere pressure changes and APL vertical deformation. The results show that the variation of air mass has a major impact on the north-eastern area of East China, the eastern area of North China, and Northeast China, and the vertical crustal displacement caused by the atmosphere changes in these regions can reach about 20 mm. The correction of APL for vertical time series of GNSS reference stations in different regions indicates that the arid area of the Northwest China, Northeast China, Central China, and North China are greatly affected by APL. While for the station located in Sichuan-Yunnan region, the amplitude and period change are small after correction of APL for vertical time series of GNSS reference stations, which reveals that the area is seriously affected by tectonic movement and water migration loading. The correlation between atmospheric pressure changes and crustal deformation is analyzed, which shows that APL has a serious impact on the north-eastern area of North China, the Northeast China, and the eastern area of Central China when the variations in atmospheric pressure in mainland China are the same. The research results of this paper will provide some reference value for the study of crustal structural deformation and the establishment of geodetic datum.
Highlights
Atmospheric pressure loading is the elastic response of the earth caused by the redistribution of atmospheric pressure
We present an atmospheric data processing strategy to compute the Atmospheric pressure loading (APL) based on a spherical harmonic expansion of the global atmosphere pressure changes
We provide a sample model to describe the relativity between the global atmosphere pressure changes and APL vertical deformation. e results show that the variation of air mass has a major impact on the north-eastern area of East China, the eastern area of North China, and Northeast China, and the vertical crustal displacement caused by the atmosphere changes in these regions can reach about 20 mm. e correction of APL for vertical time series of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reference stations in different regions indicates that the arid area of the Northwest China, Northeast China, Central China, and North China are greatly affected by APL
Summary
Atmospheric pressure loading is the elastic response of the earth caused by the redistribution of atmospheric pressure. One of the calculation methods for the APL is mainly based on the integration of Green’s function [6, 7], the spherical harmonic function expansion [8, 9], and their model and arithmetic improvement [10, 11], combining with Love number of deformation characteristics of the earth surface by the earth model Based on these calculation theory, Zhang et al [12] assessed vertical crustal displacement of the Earth’s crust in China caused by atmospheric loading effects, and the result showed that the vertical crustal displacement range can be up to 20∼30 mm, predominantly at the seasonal time scale. Bad data of the global atmospheric pressure is purged by a grid low-pass filtering
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