The gravity field variation caused by inner core super rotation

Abstract

Due to the super rotation of the Earth’s inner core, the tilted figure axis of the inner core would progress with respect to the mantle and thus cause the variation of the Earth’s external gravity field. This paper improves the present model of the gravity field variation caused by the inner core super rotation. Under the assumption that the inner core is a stratifying ellipsoid whose density function is fitted out from PREM and the super rotation rate is 0.27∼0.53°/yr, calculations show that the global temporal variations on the Earth’s surface have a maximum value of about 0.79∼1.54×10−3 μGal and a global average intensity of about 0.45∼0.89×10−3 μGal in the whole year of 2007, which is beyond the accuracy of the present gravimetry and even the super conducting gravimeter data. However, both the gravity variations at Beijing and Wuhan vary like sine variables with maximal variations around 0.33 μGal and 0.29 μGal, respectively, in one cycle. Thus, continuous gravity measurements for one or two decades might be able to detect the differential motion of the inner core.