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Encyclopedia of Geodesy pp 1–5Cite as

Loading Effects and Reference Frames

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Definition

Loading effects and reference frames. Mass loading causes the surface of the Earth to displace with an impact on reference frames realized with station coordinates.

Introduction

Surface mass loading, driven by temporal and geographical changes in the mass of the atmosphere, oceans, and continental water storage, causes the surface of the Earth to displace. The elastic displacement is proportional to the amplitude and spatial extent of the changing load. To forward predict the three-dimensional surface displacements requires a model or observations of the spatial distribution of the load and an Earth model defined by Load Love numbers.

Two approaches are commonly used to predict surface displacements from changing surface loads. The first approach uses spherical harmonics (Gegout et al., 2010). In this method, Love numbers for a particular radially symmetric Earth model are convolved with a spherical harmonic representation of the load field (Kaula, 1966). An extension of...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fakultät für Naturwissenschaften, Technologie und Kommunikation, University of Luxembourg, 6, rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, L-1359, Luxembourg, Germany

    Tonie van Dam

  2. Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Vienna University of Technology, Gußhausstr. 25-29/E120 (CB0513), 1040, Wien, Austria

    Johannes Böhm

Authors
  1. Tonie van Dam
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  2. Johannes Böhm
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Correspondence to Tonie van Dam .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Geodetic Institute, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Erik Grafarend

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van Dam, T., Böhm, J. (2016). Loading Effects and Reference Frames. In: Grafarend, E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geodesy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_104-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_104-1

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