edu.ucar.opensky::articles:24764 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-24T23:03:56.000330 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7542s1s Using GRACE data to estimate climate change impacts on the Earth's moment of inertia 2021-09-13T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7542s1s https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.640304 Ren, D. author Hu, Aixue author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher The widely used 15-year Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) measured mass redistribution shows an increasing trend in the nontidal Earth's moment of inertia (MOI). Various contributing components are independently evaluated using five high-quality atmospheric reanalysis datasets and a novelty numerical modeling system. We found a steady, statistically robust (passed a two-tailed t-test at p = 0.04 for dof = 15) rate of MOI increase reaching similar to 11.0 x 10(27) kg m(2)/yr, equivalent to a 11.45 s mu /yr increase in the length of day, during 2002-2017. Further analysis suggests that the Antarctic ice sheet contributes the most, followed by the Greenland ice sheet, the precipitation-driven land hydrological cycle, mountain glaciers, and the fluctuation of atmosphere, in this order. Short-term MOI spikes from the GRACE measurements are mostly associated with major low/mid-latitude earthquakes, fitting closely with the MOI variations from the hydrological cycle. Atmospheric fluctuation contributes the least but has a steady trend of 0.5 s mu /yr, with horizontal mass distribution contributing twice as much as the vertical expansion and associated lift of the atmosphere's center of mass. The latter is a previously overlooked term affecting MOI fluctuation. The contribution to the observed MOI trend from a warming climate likely will persist in the future, largely due to the continuous mass loss from the Earth's ice sheets.</p> UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. None eng geoscientificInformation