Loading effects in GPS vertical displacement time series

Abstract:

Surface deformations due to loading, with yet no comprehensive representation, account for a significant part of the variability in geodetic time series. We assess effects of loading in GPS vertical displacement time series at several frequency bands. We compare displacement derived from up-to-date loading models to two global sets of positioning time series, and investigate how they are reduced looking at interannual periods (> 2 months), intermediate periods (> 7 days) and the whole spectrum (> 1day). We assess the impact of interannual loading on estimating velocities. We compute atmospheric loading effects using surface pressure fields from the ECMWF. We use the inverted barometer (IB) hypothesis valid for periods exceeding a week to describe the ocean response to the pressure forcing. We used general circulation ocean model (ECCO and GLORYS) to account for wind, heat and fresh water flux. We separately use the Toulouse Unstructured Grid Ocean model (TUGO-m), forced by air pressure and winds, to represent the dynamics of the ocean response at high frequencies. The continental water storage is described using GLDAS/Noah and MERRA-land models. Non-hydrology loading reduces the variability of the observed vertical displacement differently according to the frequency band. The hydrology loading leads to a further reduction mostly at annual periods. ECMWF+TUGO-m better agrees with vertical surface motion than the ECMWF+IB model at all frequencies. The interannual deformation is time-correlated at most of the locations. It is adequately described by a power-law process of spectral index varying from -1.5 to -0.2. Depending on the power-law parameters, the predicted non-linear deformation due to mass loading variations leads to vertical velocity biases up to 0.7 mm/yr when estimated from 5 years of continuous observations. The maximum velocity bias can reach up to 1 mm/yr in regions around the southern Tropical band.