Earth Rotation Information System: Development of a virtual Earth rotation system for geodetic and geoscience applications (ERIS)

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Bernd Richter
• Subject Area: Geophysics and Geodesy
• Term: from 2006 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5471782

During the last years fundamental scientific investigations have been carried out to understand the interactions within the ¿system Earth¿ and their effects on the Earth rotation parameters. New scientific insights in the fields of the dynamics of the Earth¿s interior and the magnetic field, the angular momentums of the new ocean, atmospheric and hydrological models are often recognized as basic findings. The integration of new results in an overall ¿system Earth¿ to broaden the understanding is limited by the factor of insufficient interoperability. ERIS will organize a software package to describe and visualize the rotation of the ¿system Earth¿ based on the state of the art models, partly developed within this research program. An open standard for the interoperability between software packages allows the combination of the various models describing the single components affecting the Earth rotation. In the future this standard facilitates the integration of more recent developments or models. The envisaged software package ERIS will serve as a powerful scientific instrument. The various scientific models for the system Earth and its interactions including relevant equations of motions (such as the Euler-Liouville equation) and excitation functions will be available on a modular basis. The user will be able to switch on and off the various interactions and learn directly the results on the EOP. In that way the effect of also weak forces in the Earth¿s system can be understood and small signals in the data be interpreted. The knowledge based system ERIS will guide experts as well as interested non professional users by applying user-adapted interfaces and will be the interface for all projects involved in this research proposal as central Information, Communication and Database System.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 584: Earth Rotation and Global Dynamic Processes
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Michael H. Soffel