Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:12:17.350Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Theory of the Earth's Orientation, with Some New Results for Nutation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2017

John M. Wahr*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Campus Box 390, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The rotation of the earth is variable at a number of time scales, from a few days to thousands of years and longer. Variations occur in the rotation rate, in the geographical position of the rotation axis (referred to as polar motion), and in the position of the axis relative to inertial space (referred to as nutation and precession). The interpretations of the various observations have implications for the dynamical behavior and structure of the earth's deep interior, and for various aspects of meteorology and oceanography. These are reviewed below. Also included is an Appendix describing a model of the diurnal resonance in nutation for a non-hydrostatically pre-stressed earth.

Type
Geophysics
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1988 

References

Alterman, Z., Jarosch, H., and Pekeris, C.L., 1959; Proc. Roy. Soc. London, Ser. A., 252, 80.Google Scholar
Creager, K.C. and Jordan, T.H., 1986; Geophys. Res. Lett., 13, 1497.Google Scholar
Dahlen, F.A., 1973; Geophys. J. Roy. Astr. Soc., 32, 203.Google Scholar
Dehant, V., 1987; Phys. E. Planet. Int., in press.Google Scholar
Gwinn, C.R., Herring, T.A., and Shapiro, I.I., 1986; J. Geophys. Res., 91, 4755.Google Scholar
Kinoshita, H., 1977; Cel. Mech., 15, 277.Google Scholar
Lambeck, K., 1980; The Earth's Variable Rotation: Geophysical Causes and Consequences, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Langley, R.B., King, R.W., Shapiro, I.I., Rosen, R.D., and Salstein, D.A., 1981; Nature, 294, 730.Google Scholar
Le Mouel, J.L., Gire, C., and Hinderer, J., 1985; C.R. Acad. Sc. Paris, 301, 27.Google Scholar
Merriam, J.B., 1982; Geophys. J. Roy. Astr. Soc., 70, 41.Google Scholar
Merriam, J.B., 1985; J. Geophys. Res., 90, 9423.Google Scholar
Munk, W.H., and MacDonald, G.J.F., 1975; The Rotation of the Earth, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Morelli, A. and Dziewonski, A.M., 1987; Nature, 325, 678.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, M.A., and Hager, B.H., 1984; J. Geophys. Res., 89, 5987.Google Scholar
Rochester, M.G., 1984; Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A, 313, 95.Google Scholar
Sasao, T., Okubo, S., and Saito, M., 1980; in Proceedings of IAU Symposium no. 78 “Nutation and the Earth's Rotation”, eds. Fedorov, E., Smith, M., and Bender, P.; pub. D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Smith, M.L., and Dahlen, F.A., 1981; Geophys. J. Roy. Astr. Soc, 64, 223.Google Scholar
Van Hylckama, T.E.A., 1970; in Int. Assoc. Sci. Hydrology, Proc. Reading Symp. World Water Balance, Publ. 92, AIHS-UNESCO.Google Scholar
Wahr, J.M., 1981; Geophys. J. Roy. Astr. Soc., 64, 705.Google Scholar
Wahr, J.M., 1983; Geophys. J. Roy Astr. Soc., 74, 451.Google Scholar
Wahr, J., and Bergen, Z., 1986; Geophys. J. Roy. Astr. Soc., 87, 633.Google Scholar
Wilson, C.R., and Haubrich, R.A., 1976; Geophys. J. Roy. Astr. Soc., 46, 707.Google Scholar
Woodhouse, J.H., and Dahlen, F.A., 1978; Geophys. J. Roy. Astr. Soc., 53, 335.Google Scholar