High-frequency noise caused by wind in large ring laser gyroscope data

The large ring laser gyroscope at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell provides unique data of the rotational component of seismic waves. Wind has been identified as a major source of noise at short periods below 5 min. Strong winds increase the level of detected background noise either through surface friction or through wind load on hill slopes. Since our G ring laser demonstrated a routinely achieved sensitivity for rotations of 10 picorad/s when averaged over 30 s, very small effects become detectable. Using a local finite element model and applying a digital terrain model with 25 m spatial resolution, the effect of local wind forces on tilt and horizontal rotations at the ring laser site was calculated. The transfer of forces by wind ram pressure or surface friction is strongly controlled by the resolution of the terrain model or the land use, respectively. The maximum deformation caused by real wind fields reaches a few tenths of nanorads for both tilt and horizontal rotation. While the tilts are too small to affect the ring laser measurements by a change in its inclination, the horizontal rotations can be detected by the ring laser if the signal builds up within a few seconds or tens of seconds. The comparison of the modelled rotation rate time series with measured ring laser data shows a reasonable agreement in amplitude and waveform, however the correction of the ring laser time series is limited by the crude sampling of the wind measurements.