Consistent estimates of the dynamic figure parameters of the earth

Abstract

The Earth’s dynamic figure parameters, namely the principal moments of inertia and dynamic ellipticities of the whole Earth, the fluid outer core and the solid inner core, are fundamental parameters for geodetic, geophysical and astronomical studies. This study aims to re-estimate the mass and the dynamic figure parameters of the Earth on the basis of some global gravity models (EGM2008, EIGEN-6C and EIGEN-6C2) recently released with unprecedented accuracies, as well as an improved value of the gravitational constant (Formula presented.) recommended by the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA). With the potential coefficients of EGM2008, EIGEN-6C and EIGEN-6C2 rescaled to be consistent with the IAU (International Astronomical Union) and IAG (International Association of Geodesy) numerical standards, and other values of relevant parameters also being consistent with those numerical standards, we have obtained consistent estimates of the dynamic figure parameters of the stratified Earth using the theory described in Chen and Shen (J Geophys Res 115:B12419 2010). Our preferred principal moments of inertia for the whole Earth are (Formula presented.), respectively, the accuracies being limited by the uncertainties of (Formula presented.) (dynamic ellipticity of the whole Earth).