Abstract
The damping of the Chandler wobble is an old yet actively researched problem still awaiting resolution in a number of respects. Due to both observational and theoretical limitations the actual damping rate is uncertain even now; a decay time of 45–70 years or more seems probable. The two most likely candidates for dissipating wobble energy are mantle anelasticity and a dynamic response of the oceans to wobble. Because of the frequency dependence of anelastic mechanisms, study of the oceanic response may be useful for constraining low-frequency anelasticity.
The nature of the pole tide, as the oceanic response is known, has been investigated both observationally and theoretically. Data analysis reveals clear evidence of non-equilibrium pole tide characteristics in shallow seas; the products of inertia implied by such characteristics yield significant shallow-sea dissipation of wobble energy. Theoretical explanations of those characteristics are presently being revised, and so far confirm the importance of the shallow seas. Data in the open ocean is sparse; at a few locations it implies statistically significant enhancements great enough to completely damp the wobble. Open-ocean theory so far fails to support the data, but has yet to be extended to realistic oceans.
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Dickman, S.R. (1986). The Damping of the Chandler Wobble and the Pole Tide. In: Cazenave, A. (eds) Earth Rotation: Solved and Unsolved Problems. NATO ASI Series, vol 187. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4750-4_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4750-4_15
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