Assessment of periodic sub-diurnal Earth rotation variations at tidal frequencies through transformation of VLBI normal equation systems

We present an empirical model for periodic variations of diurnal and sub-diurnal Earth rotation parameters (ERPs) that was derived based on the transformation of normal equation (NEQ) systems of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observing sessions. NEQ systems that contain highly resolved polar motion and UT1-TAI with a temporal resolution of 15 min were generated and then transformed to the coefficients of the tidal ERP model to be solved for. To investigate the quality of this model, comparisons with empirical models from the Global Positioning System (GPS), another VLBI model and the model adopted by the conventions of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) were performed. The absolute coefficients of these models agree almost completely within 7.5 μ as in polar motion and 0.5 μs in UT1-TAI. Several bigger differences exist, which are discussed in this paper. To be able to compare the model estimates with results of the continuous VLBI campaigns, where signals with periods of 8 and 6 h were detected, terms in the ter- and quarter-diurnal band were included in the tidal ERP model. Unfortunately, almost no common features with the results of continuous VLBI campaigns or ERP predictions in these tidal bands can be seen.