Articles | Volume 16, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-16-75-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-16-75-2025
Research article
 | 
09 Jan 2025
Research article |  | 09 Jan 2025

Chaotic oceanic excitation of low-frequency polar motion variability

Lara Börger, Michael Schindelegger, Mengnan Zhao, Rui M. Ponte, Anno Löcher, Bernd Uebbing, Jean-Marc Molines, and Thierry Penduff

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Cited articles

A, G., Wahr, J., and Zhong, S.: Computations of the Viscoelastic Response of a 3-D Compressible Earth to Surface Loading: An Application to Glacial Isostatic Adjustment in Antarctica and Canada, Geophys. J. Int., 192, 557–572, https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggs030, 2013. a, b
Adhikari, S. and Ivins, E. R.: Climate-Driven Polar Motion: 2003–2015, Sci. Adv., 2, e1501693, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501693, 2016. a, b, c, d
Afroosa, M., Rohith, B., Paul, A., Durand, F., Bourdallé-Badie, R., Sreedevi, P. V., de Viron, O., Ballu, V., and Shenoi, S. S. C.: Madden-Julian Oscillation Winds Excite an Intraseasonal See-Saw of Ocean Mass That Affects Earth's Polar Motion, Communications Earth & Environment, 2, 139, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00210-x, 2021. a, b
Altamimi, Z., Rebischung, P., Métivier, L., and Collilieux, X.: ITRF2014: A new release of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame modeling nonlinear station motions, J. Geophys. Res.-Sol. Ea., 121, 6109–6131, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JB013098, 2016. a
Arbic, B. K., Müller, M., Richman, J. G., Shriver, J. F., Morten, A. J., Scott, R. B., Sérazin, G., and Penduff, T.: Geostrophic turbulence in the frequency–wavenumber domain: Eddy-driven low-frequency variability, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 44, 2050–2069, https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-13-054.1, 2014. a, b
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Short summary
Flows in the ocean are driven either by atmospheric forces or by small-scale internal disturbances that are inherently chaotic. We use computer simulation results to show that these chaotic oceanic disturbances can attain spatial scales large enough to alter the motion of Earth's pole of rotation. Given their size and unpredictable nature, the chaotic signals are a source of uncertainty when interpreting observed year-to-year polar motion changes in terms of other processes in the Earth system.
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