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Estimation of the lunar physical librations

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Abstract

The recent long-term integration of JPL ephemeris DE403/LE403 yielded lunar physical librations covering 6000 years. A Fourier analysis of a 718-year subset of this span produced estimates of the component frequencies of the forced and free librations. A subsequent iterative least-squares estimation procedure provided precise values for phases and for time-varying amplitudes and frequencies. Two free libration modes were found; presence of a third is possible but close to the noise.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

    X X Newhall & J. G. Williams

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  1. X X Newhall
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  2. J. G. Williams
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Newhall, X.X., Williams, J.G. Estimation of the lunar physical librations. Celestial Mech Dyn Astr 66, 21–30 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00048820

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00048820

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