Oceanic tidal angular momentum and Earth's rotation variations

Abstract

Luni-solar tides affect Earth's rotation in a variety of ways. We give an overview of the physics and focus on the excitation of Earth rotational variations by ocean tides under the conservation of angular momentum. Various models for diurnal and semidiurnal tidal height and tidal current fields have been derived, following a legacy of a number of theoretical tide models, from the Topex/Poseidon (T/P) ocean altimetry data. We review the oceanic tidal angular momenta (OTAM) predicted by these T/P models for the eight major tides (Q 1, O 1, P 1, K 1, N 2, M 2, S 2, K 2), and their excitations on both Earth's rotational speed variation (in terms of length-of-day or UT1) and polar motion (prograde diurnal/semidiurnal components and retrograde semidiurnal components). These small, high-frequency effects have been unambiguously observed in recent years by precise Earth rotation measurements via space geodetic techniques. Here we review the comparison of the very-long-baseline-interferometry (VLBI) data with the T/P OTAM predictions. The agreement is good with discrepancies typically within 1 – 2 microseconds for UT1 and 10 – 30 microarcseconds for polar motion. The eight tides collectively explain the majority of subdaily Earth rotation variance during the intensive VLBI campaign Cont94. This establishes the dominant role of OTAM in exciting the diurnal/semidiurnal polar motion and paves the way for detailed studies of short-period non-OTAM excitations, such as atmospheric and oceanic angular momentum variations, earthquakes, the atmospheric thermal tides, Earth librations, and the response of the mantle lateral inhomogeneities to tidal forcing. These studies await further improvements in tide models and Earth rotation measurements.