Study of the interannual variations of the Earth's rotation

In this work we investigate the variations of the Earth's rotation in the interval of periods from 2 to 8 years using the longest available observational series obtained both by means of astrometry and space geodesy. We found an abrupt change of the variation pattern in the middle of the 1980s, when classical ground-based astrometric facilities for studying the Earth Rotation Parameters (ERP) were replaced with space geodesy methods. Variations with a 6-year periodicity and similar to 0.2-ms amplitude practically disappeared (space geodesy instruments did not detect these variations right from the start), but the 2- to 4-year periodicities increased in amplitude and began to dominate in this frequency range under consideration. In this study, we analyze some possible excitation sources and possible causes of the change in the variability pattern.