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The Global Geophysical Fluids Center (GGFC) and the associated
eight Special Bureaus (SB) have the responsibility of
supporting, facilitating, and providing services to the
worldwide research community, in areas related to the variations
in Earth rotation, gravity field and geocenter that are caused
by mass transport in the global geophysical fluids. Mass
transports in the geophysical fluids will cause the following
geodynamic effects on a broad time scale: (1) variations in the
solid Earth's rotation (in length-of-day/universal time and
polar motion/nutation) via the conservation of angular momentum
and effected by torques at the fluid-solid Earth interfaces; (2)
changes in the gravity field according to Newton's gravitational
law; (3) motion in the center of mass of the solid Earth
relative to that of the whole Earth ("geocenter") via the
conservation of linear momentum; and (4) mass loading effects
normally manifested in surface deformations and movements.
Website: "http://bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov/ggfc/"
[Summary provided by the GGFC.]
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