Subsurface tidal gravity variation and gravimetric factor

Abstract

Taking advantage of the simultaneous recording during 471 days between 2019 and 2021 by two superconducting gravimeters installed at the surface and 520 m under the surface at the Low Noise Underground Laboratory (LSBB) in Rustrel, France, we investigate whether a difference between the tidal gravity signals at the two locations can be detected. First, we model the periodical variations of the Earth’s gravity owing to the tidal influence from the Sun and Moon, at the Earth’s surface and at shallow depths. We provide analytical formulas for the Love numbers, gravimetric factor and gravity variation of simple spherical planetary models. We also numerically compute those parameters and function for a realistic spherical Earth model. We find that the fractional difference between the semi-diurnal tidal gravity variations at the surface and 520 m below is as small as 8.5 10−5. We next evaluate the effect on the amplitude of the recorded gravity signal due to the calibration factors of the two superconducting gravimeters at LSBB. Finally, we compute the spectra of the difference between the gravity variations measured on and under the surface in the semi-diurnal band of the M2 tidal wave. We find that the uncertainties associated to the calibration factors are larger than the theoretical or observational difference between the tidal gravity variations on the surface and at a 520-m depth.