An attempt has been made to search for the translational oscillations of the Earth＇s solid inner core in the gravity measurements recorded with the superconducting gravimeters （SG） from the worldwide network of the Global Geodynamics Project （GGP）. All the SG data were prepared and analyzed by the same method to remove accurately the signatures related to gravity tides, local baro- metric pressure, the Earth＇s rotation, the long-term trend and so on. We obtained the estimations of the power spectral densities of each residual series and the estimations of the product spectral densities in the subtidal band （0.162-0.285 cph） were obtained by using a multi-station stacking technique after further eliminating atmospheric effects. The inner core translation triplet was detected in the subtidal band. We find 6 groups of signal with high signal-to-noise ratio that are consistent with the characteris- tics of the triplet, and 4 groups of the results that are close to the previous studies and the differences are less than 0.92%. It implies that the groups of signatures all have the possibility to be related to the inner core translational oscillations.
The parameters, i.e. the Period and the Quality factor, of the Earth's free core nutation (FCN) are closely related to the dissipative coupling between the core and the mantle. Based on the FCN parameters obtained from the actual observations and theoretical simulation, significantly constrained in this study were several key parameters near the core-mantle boundary (CMB), related to the core and mantle coupling, including viscosity at the top of liquid core, conductivity at the bottom of the mantle, and dynamic ellipticity of the CMB. In order to choose high quality observations from global stations of the superconducting gravimeters (SG) on the Global Geodynamics Project (GGP) network, we adopted two criteria, the standard deviations of harmonic analysis on tidal observations and the quality of the FCN parameters calculated with the observations from single station. After the mean ocean tidal effects of the recent ocean tidal models were removed, the FCN parameters were retrieved by stacking the tidal gravity observations from the GGP network. The results were in a good agreement with those in the recent research by using the SG and/or the VLBI observations. Combined with an FCN theoretical model deduced by angular momentum method, the viscous and electromagnetic coupling parameters near the CMB were evaluated. Numerical results indicated that the viscosity at the top of the liquid core was in the range from 6.6×102 to 2.6×103 Pa·s, which was in good agreement with those obtained from the Earth's nutation, the FCN and variations in the length of day (LOD). The conductivity at the bottom of the mantle should be as large as 2.6×106-1.0×107 S m-1 to match the FCN quality factors from the actual observations. The dissipative coupling had a little influence of 1-2 sidereal days for the FCN period.
Tidal gravity changes arise from the response of the solid Earth to the tidal forces of the Sun,Moon and planets close to the Earth,and are a comprehensive reflection of the structure and distribution of physical properties of the Earth's interior.As a result,observations of tidal gravity changes are the basis of studies on other global and/or regional dynamic processes.The characteristics of tidal gravity changes in the region of the Tibetan Plateau were investigated through continuous gravity measurements recorded with a superconducting gravimeter (SG) installed in Lhasa over a year.Through contrast measurements with a spring gravimeter LaCoste-Romberg ET20 at the same site,the gravity observations in Lhasa were scaled to the international tidal gravity reference in Wuhan.Meanwhile,the scale factor of the SG was determined accurately as-777.358 ± 0.136 nm s-2V-1,which is about 2.2% less than the value provided by the manufacturer.The results indicate that the precision of the tidal gravity observations made with the SG in Lhasa was very high.The standard deviation was 0.459 nm s-2,and the uncertainties of for the four main tidal waves (i.e.O 1,K 1,M 2 and S 2) were better than 0.006%.In addition,the observations of the diurnal gravity tides had an obvious pattern of nearly diurnal resonance.As a result,it is affirmed that the Lhasa station can provide a local tidal gravity reference for gravity measurements on the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions.The loading effects of oceanic tides on tidal gravity observations in Lhasa are so weak that the resulting perturbations in the gravimetric factors are less than 0.6%.However,the loading effects of the local atmosphere on either the tidal or nontidal gravity observations are significant,although no seasonal variations were found.After removal of the atmospheric effects,the standard deviation of the SG observations in Lhasa decreased obviously from 2.009 to 0.459 nm s-2.Having removed the loading effects of oceanic tides and local atmosphere,it was found tha
XU JianQiao CHEN XiaoDong ZHOU JiangCun SUN HePing
