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20 January 2016

Earth-Sun distance and Chandler Wobble

Continuing from The Pacemaker of the Chandler Wobble, Grumbine 2014:

The Chandler Wobble (CW) is a small variation in the orientation of the earth’s rotational axis [Chandler, 1891]. It has a period near 433 days [Liao and Zhou, 2004] (0.8435cycles per year, 0.0023095 cycles per day). Some source of energy for the Chandler Wobble  must exist because it dies out on a time scale of decades [Munk and MacDonald, 1960] if energy is not continuingly added. Gross [2000] found that atmosphere-ocean forcing on the earth’s rotation, computed in an ocean general circulation model driven by observed  meteorological parameters, provided that forcing. [O’Connor et al., 2000] also found wind forcing of the ocean to drive the pole tide. This source was questioned [Wunsch, 2001] partly on the grounds that the ocean was displaying a very narrow band response, but there was no reason to believe that the forcing itself was narrow band.

I suggest that the atmosphere-ocean variability near the Chandler Wobble period, among others, is paced by variation in earth-sun distance. The earth-sun distance, in addition to annual and semi-annual variations due to the elliptical shape of the earth’s orbit, varies due to perturbations from the moon (29.53 day period and others), Venus (292, 584, 417, 1455, ... days), and Jupiter (399, 199, 439, 489, ... days). The size of these variations is small, the largest being the 29.53 day lunar synodic period (31*106 Astronomical Units), amounting to approximately 0.08 W/m2 on a plane perpendicular to the sun at the top of the atmosphere. See Table 1 for more precise periods and the amplitudes of distance variations corresponding to them.

Horizons [Giorgini et al., 1996] was used to provided 6-hourly earth-sun distance and osculating elements for 1 Jan 1962 00 UTC through 31 Dec 2008 18 UTC. Table 1 was derived by harmonic analysis of those data at precise frequencies to determine purely cyclic variations in the earth-sun distance. The leading terms are, of course, the annual and semi-annual cycles from the elliptical orbit. Following this, however, are perturbations in Earth-Sun distance due to the moon, Venus, and Jupiter. Note that the orbital elements are not precisely locked to the periods given. The osculating (instantaneous) orbital elements vary; the osculating year varies from 364 to 366 days, for instance [Giorgini et al., 1996]. Consequently, there are residuals near the annual period. But they are far smaller than the main line. The anomalistic year, 365.259635 days [Observatory and Observatory, 2001], is the period between successive perihelia. This has been found to be the appropriate period for climate temperature analysis rather than the tropical (vernal equinox to vernal equinox) year [Thomson, 1995]. As we will be drawing the conclusion that earth-sun distance is important, even for small variations, the anomalistic year is the self-consistent one to use here. 

Previous analyses of orbital variation at relatively high frequency (high compared to, e.g., Milankovitch periods [Milankovich, 1941]) have used annual average orbital parameters [Borisenkov et al., 1985; Loutre et al., 1992], precluding them from examining periods shorter than 2 years and aliasing some of the periods examined here. Also, those works were examining the earth’s tilt, rather than earth-sun distance. Gravitational torques have been examined previously as the main driver of the Chandler Wobble and rejected [Munk and MacDonald , 1960; Lambeck , 1980], which means only non-gravitational external forces, such as earth-sun distance, force Chandler Wobble at these periods, if any external sources do. 

19 January 2016

The Pacemaker of the Chandler Wobble

Abstract: The Chandler Wobble is one of the largest circumannual periodic or quasi-periodic variations in the earth's orientation.  After over a century of searching for its forcing, it was found to be caused by atmospheric circulation and induced ocean circulation and pressure.  The question of why there should be such forcing from the atmosphere has remained open. I suggest that variations in earth-sun distance cause this forcing to the atmosphere and thence the ocean.  Analysis of earth-sun distance, earth's orientation, and atmospheric winds shows a coherent relationship between the atmosphere and earth orientation at just those periods expected from earth-sun distance variation.  As this is a general mechanism, it can be used in examining regular climatic variations on a wide range of periods and for climate parameters other than the earth's orientation.

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That is the abstract for the paper I link to below.  It's not a peer-reviewed paper in the sense of being in a peer-reviewed journal.   But it has been reviewed by an expert in the field (William P. O'Connor), who was quite favorable.

I am posting the idea and paper here.  Long past time for the ideas to be discussed.  If they're shredded in the blogosphere, so be it.  I have quite a bit more than what I've put in the document. Over the next few days and weeks, I'll post more of those additional materials as well.

The Pacemaker of the Chandler Wobble, Grumbine 2014