Global Geophysical Fluid Center
The Special Bureau for the Atmosphere (SBA) is concerned with the atmospheric information that is needed for a number of geodetic issues. The SBA was an outgrowth of the earlier Sub-bureau for Atmospheric Angular Momentum prior to the creation of the GGFC, and can be accessed at: http://www.aer.com/science-research/earth/earth-mass-and-rotation/special-bureau-atmosphere.
The oceans have a major impact on global geophysical processes of the Earth. Nontidal changes in oceanic currents and ocean-bottom pressure are a major source of polar motion excitation and also measurably change the length of the day. The changing mass distribution of the oceans causes the Earthâs gravitational field to change and causes the center-of-mass of the oceans to change which in turn causes the center-of-mass of the solid Earth to change. The changing mass distribution of the oceans also changes the load on the oceanic crust, thereby affecting both the vertical and horizontal position of observing stations located near the oceans. As part of the IERS Global Geophysical Fluids Center, the Special Bureau for the Oceans (SBO) is responsible for collecting, calculating, analyzing, archiving, and distributing data relating to nontidal changes in oceanic processes affecting the Earthâs rotation, deformation, gravitational field, and geocenter. The oceanic products available through the SBO website at https://isdc.gfz-potsdam.de/ggfc-oceans/ are produced primarily by general circulation models of the oceans that are operated by participating modeling groups and include oceanic angular momentum, center-of-mass, and bottom pressure. Through the SBO website, oceanic data can be downloaded and a bibliography of publications pertaining to the effect of the oceans on the solid Earth can be obtained.
The Special Bureau for Hydrology provides access to data sets of terrestrial water storage (TWS) variations from major climate and land surface models and GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite gravity measurements. The web site contains TWS estimates from five numerical models, the NCEP (National Center for Environmental Prediction) reanalysis, the ECMWF (European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting) reanalysis, the CPC (Climate Prediction Center) Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS), the NASA Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS), and the NOAA LadWorld land dynamics model. Global gridded TWS changes estimated from GRACE time-variable gravity observations are also provided in our online data archive (at https://www.polyu.edu.hk/lsgi/ggfc/).
