Effects of water storage on the earth's wobble

An evaluation of the global water storage contribution to the Chandler wobble has never been undertaken because: (1) the hydrological data necessary for the reconstruction of an extended monthly time series have not been available; and (2) the water storage contribution has traditionally been regarded as relatively unimportant because of its minor role in the excitation of the annual wobble. However, a crude approximation of the global water storage series is possible using worldwide records of monthly precipitation and temperature, accumulating precipitation at individual locations whenever temperatures are at 0° Celsius or below. Comparison of this modeled series with a previous estimate of the annual component of the global water balance, and with the observed monthly polar motion series, indicates good agreement with the former, and a significant correlation with the latter near the Chandler frequency.