EGU25-15860, updated on 15 Mar 2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15860
EGU General Assembly 2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Towards a potential update of the standards of Earth rotation
Alberto Escapa1, José Manuel Ferrándiz2, María Karbon2, Santiago Belda2, and Tomás Baenas3
Alberto Escapa et al.
  • 1Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of León, 24071 León, Spain (alberto.escapa@unileon.es)
  • 2VLBI Analysis Center (UAVAC), Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
  • 3Department of Applied Sciences, University Centre of Defence at the Spanish Air Force Academy, 30720 Santiago de la Ribera, Spain

A characterization of Earth rotation makes possible to perform the ubiquitious transformation between terrestrial and celestial systems. How this transformation is implemented in practice is addressed in different IAU/IUGG/IAG resolutions and described extensively in the IERS Conventions.

In the last years several IAU/IAG joint working groups on the Earth rotation have called attention to the limitations of existing Earth rotation models, which date back to the early 2000s, considering current demands on Earth rotation determination (about 1mm on the Earth surface). In fact, two resolutions by IAG (No.5, 2019) and IAU (No.B2, 2021) encouraged a prompt improvement of the Earth rotation theory. In this line, in the last GGOS/IERS Unified Analysis Workshops (UAW 2019, 2022) some recommendations have been done on the revision/updating of IERS Conventions 2010 (e.g., Ferrándiz & Escapa 2029, 2022).

In this communication, we will review the current standarization of the transformation from the celestial to the terrestrial system and its components (precession/nutation, Earth rotation angle, and polar motion). We will focus on the limitations of IAU 2000/2006 precession/nutation, providing a roadmap that would allow their update in the short term.

Acknowledgments.- This work has been partially supported by the Spanish projects PID2020-119383GB-I00 funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/), Generalitat Valenciana SEJIGENT/2021/001, and the European Union—NextGenerationEU (ZAMBRANO 21-04).

How to cite: Escapa, A., Ferrándiz, J. M., Karbon, M., Belda, S., and Baenas, T.: Towards a potential update of the standards of Earth rotation, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15860, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15860, 2025.