How to detect the Chandler and the annual wobble of the Earth with a large ring laser gyroscope

K U Schreiber; T Klügel; J-P R Wells; R B Hurst; A Gebauer

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.173904

How to detect the Chandler and the annual wobble of the Earth with a large ring laser gyroscope

Phys Rev Lett. 2011 Oct 21;107(17):173904. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.173904. Epub 2011 Oct 20.

Authors

K U Schreiber¹, T Klügel, J-P R Wells, R B Hurst, A Gebauer

Affiliation

¹ Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Forschungseinrichtung Satellitengeodaesie, Geodätisches Observatorium Wettzell, 93444 Bad Kötzting, Germany.

PMID: 22107520
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.173904

Abstract

We demonstrate a 16 m(2) helium-neon ring laser gyroscope with sufficient sensitivity and stability to directly detect the Chandler wobble of the rotating Earth. The successful detection of both the Chandler and the annual wobble is verified by comparing the time series of the ring laser measurements against the "C04 series" of Earth rotation data from the International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service.