Affiliation:
1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
2. Royal Observatory of Belgium/FNRS, B-1180 Brussels, Belgium.
Abstract
Earth's dynamic oblateness (
J
2
) has been decreasing due to postglacial rebound (PGR). However,
J
2
began to increase in 1997, indicating a pronounced global-scale mass redistribution within Earth's system. We have determined that the observed increases in
J
2
are caused primarily by a recent surge in subpolar glacial melting and by mass shifts in the Southern, Pacific, and Indian oceans. When these effects are removed, the residual trend in
J
2
(–2.9 x 10
−11
year
−1
) becomes consistent with previous estimates of PGR from satellite and eclipse data. The climatic significance of these rapid shifts in glacial and oceanic mass, however, remains to be investigated.
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Reference29 articles.
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2. The definition and method of calculation for J 2 are given in the SOM Text.
3. Yoder C. F., et al., Nature 307, 757 (1983).
4. Stephenson F. R., Morrison L. V., Philos. Trans. R. Soc. A 351, 165 (1995).
5. Detection of a Large-Scale Mass Redistribution in the Terrestrial System Since 1998
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