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AGU: Journal of Geophysical Research, Solid Earth

 

Keywords

  • diurnal polar motion
  • ring laser
  • Sagnac effect

Index Terms

  • Geodesy and Gravity: Diurnal and subdiurnal rotational variations
  • Geodesy and Gravity: Instruments and techniques
  • Mathematical Geophysics: Modeling
Abstract
Cited By (25)
 

Abstract

JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 109, B06405, 5 PP., 2004
doi:10.1029/2003JB002803

Direct measurement of diurnal polar motion by ring laser gyroscopes

K. U. Schreiber

Forschungseinrichtung Satellitengeodäsie, Technische Universität München, Kötzting, Germany

A. Velikoseltsev

Forschungseinrichtung Satellitengeodäsie, Technische Universität München, Kötzting, Germany

M. Rothacher

Forschungseinrichtung Satellitengeodäsie, Technische Universität München, Kötzting, Germany

T. Klügel

Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie, Fundamentalstation Wettzell, Kötzting, Germany

G. E. Stedman

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

D. L. Wiltshire

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

We report the first direct measurements of the very small effect of forced diurnal polar motion, successfully observed on three of our large ring lasers, which now measure the instantaneous direction of Earth's rotation axis to a precision of 1 part in 108 when averaged over a time interval of several hours. Ring laser gyroscopes provide a new viable technique for directly and continuously measuring the position of the instantaneous rotation axis of the Earth and the amplitudes of the Oppolzer modes. In contrast, the space geodetic techniques (very long baseline interferometry, side looking radar, GPS, etc.) contain no information about the position of the instantaneous axis of rotation of the Earth but are sensitive to the complete transformation matrix between the Earth-fixed and inertial reference frame. Further improvements of gyroscopes will provide a powerful new tool for studying the Earth's interior.

Received 14 September 2003; accepted 19 April 2004; published 23 June 2004.

Citation: Schreiber, K. U., A. Velikoseltsev, M. Rothacher, T. Klügel, G. E. Stedman, and D. L. Wiltshire (2004), Direct measurement of diurnal polar motion by ring laser gyroscopes, J. Geophys. Res., 109, B06405, doi:10.1029/2003JB002803.

Cited By

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