Analysis of daily latitude variations

Abstract

The daily latitude measurements of the International Polar Motion Service are analyzed. The annual oscillation in the data was modeled by separate oscillations in each observatory's latitude data. The separate oscillations varied in amplitude from 0.05 sec to 0.15 sec with standard deviations of about 0.007 sec. Within the resolution of the latitude residuals (150 cm), there is no indication of the sharp changes which might be associated with earthquake effects. Then, applying Schuster's test to a periodogram of the residuals indicates that there are probably several processes occurring at amplitudes between 0.007 sec and 0.03 sec whose solution awaits a more precise measurement technique.