Comparison of polar motion data from the 1980 project MERIT short campaign
The short campaign of MERIT (a program of international collaboration to Monitor Earth Rotation and Intercompare the Techniques of observation and analysis) was held during the three-month period August to October, 1980. Based on the analysis of polar motion behavior, the possibility of predicting polar motion for a long time interval (1-2 years in advance) with sufficient accuracy has been found. The predicted polar motion can be used for geodetic purposes. It appears that the accuracy of the prediction is high enough for any practical purpose which requires real time polar motion up to an accuracy of approximately 50 cm. This would include applications such as control of space probes. Attention is given to a MERIT data intercomparison based on raw data, and a MERIT data intercomparison after smoothing.