Analysis of tidal signals in surface displacement measured by a dense continuous GPS array

We analyze the tidal displacement signals, for the eight major diurnal and semidiurnal tides, from Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements made at the Western United States over the past 16 years with 1075 independent stations. By careful examinations among inland versus coastal GPS data we are able to demonstrate that estimated precisions down to the level of ∼0.1 mm (horizontal) and ∼0.3 mm (vertical) have been reached for the tidal signals, and that at such precisions coherent spatial patterns are revealed in the residual tidal amplitudes and phases after the removal of a priori modeled effects of body tides and ocean tidal loading (OTL). We demonstrate the facility of modern precise GPS data in not only constraining the ocean tide models but, more significantly, in providing source data in terms of regional, complex Love numbers for geophysical inference of the heterogeneities of elastic and inelastic structures in the solid Earth's deep interior on tidal timescales.

► GPS tidal displacements are estimated to the precision of well within sub-mm.
► Coherent spatial patterns are revealed in the residual tidal amplitudes and phases.
► Tidal residuals can infer the heterogeneities in the Earth's deep interior structure.