Seasonal movements of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) stations in Northeast (NE) Japan are mainly driven by elastic loading of snow, reaching a few meters deep along the western flank of the backbone range. Here we study them in a comprehensive manner to solve remaining problems. GNSS stations in the inland area show sharp and strong subsidence peaks in winter and remain flat in other seasons, a response consistent with the snow loading. On the other hand, those close to coasts show broad and weak winter subsidence peaks. This needs additional loads in spring to retard the rapid decay of snow loading. We propose that rice fields work as natural reservoirs until early summer and evaluate quantitative consistency of the hypothesis. We also found that some stations show abnormally large winter subsidence that cannot be explained by snow loading alone. Here we examine two factors, i.e., groundwater extraction in winter for melting snow on roads, and snow accretion onto GNSS antenna radomes. We also evaluate seasonal ocean water mass changes in the Japan Sea using GRACE satellite gravimetry data. We found its role in seasonal crustal movements in NE Japan quite small.

中文翻译：

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重新审视日本东北部的季节性地壳运动


日本东北部（NE）全球导航卫星系统（GNSS）站的季节性运动主要由雪的弹性载荷驱动，雪的弹性载荷沿着骨干山脉的西侧达到几米深。这里我们对它们进行全面的研究，以解决遗留问题。内陆地区的 GNSS 站点在冬季显示出急剧而强烈的沉降峰值，而在其他季节则保持平稳，这与雪荷载的响应一致。另一方面，靠近海岸的地区显示出广泛而微弱的冬季沉降峰值。这需要在春季增加额外的荷载，以延缓雪荷载的快速衰减。我们建议稻田在初夏之前一直充当天然水库，并评估该假设的定量一致性。我们还发现，一些站点出现异常大的冬季沉降，不能仅用积雪来解释。在这里，我们研究两个因素，即冬季提取地下水以融化道路上的积雪，以及 GNSS 天线天线罩上的积雪。我们还使用 GRACE 卫星重力测量数据评估日本海的季节性海水质量变化。我们发现它在日本东北部季节性地壳运动中的作用相当小。