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Seasonal air and water mass redistribution effects on LAGEOS and Starlette
Author(s) -
Gutierrez Roberto,
Wilson Clark R.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl014i009p00929
Subject(s) - geopotential , geopotential height , environmental science , seasonality , climatology , atmospheric sciences , water mass , geology , meteorology , physics , mathematics , oceanography , statistics , precipitation
We computed zonal geopotential coefficients from average seasonal variations in global air and water mass distribution. These coefficients are used to predict the seasonal variations of LAGEOS' and Starlette's orbital node, δΩ, and the seasonal δJ 3 for Starlette. A comparison of these predictions with the observed values indicates that air pressure and, to a lesser extent, water storage may be responsible for a large portion of the currently unmodeled variation in the earth's gravity field.