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Plate Motion and Earth Orientation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2017

A. Mallama
Affiliation:
Science Applications Research, 4400 Forbes Boulevard, Lanham, Maryland 20706
M. Kao
Affiliation:
Science Applications Research, 4400 Forbes Boulevard, Lanham, Maryland 20706

Abstract

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Earth orientation series are linked to the terrestrial reference frame in which the observing site locations are measured. The effect of tectonic motion is a simple rotation for any given plate, but the overall effect depends on the distribution of sites. The magnitude of this motion is large enough to be evident in the data. For example, the coefficient of rotation for the North American plate around the Earth's Y-axis is −0.8 millarcseconds per year in the AMO-2 plate motion model of Minster and Jordan. The VLBI analysis system at NASA/GSFC for computing earth orientation series has recently been enhanced by including the Minster and Jordan model for a priori tectonic effects. Tests indicate that the weighted-root-mean-square residual of observations to the solution is decreased by using this model.

Type
Geophysics
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1988 

References

Minster, J.B. and Jordan, T.H., ‘Present Day Plate Motions,’ J. Geophysical Research, 83, 5331–53, 1978.Google Scholar