Development of the Numerical Theory of the Rigid Earth Rotation

Abstract

Development of the numerical theory of the rigid Earth’s rotation is carried out in the Rodrigues-Hamilton parameters, which define a position of the principle axes of inertia of the Earth with respect to the fixed ecliptic plane and equinox J2000.0. The rigid Earth perturbed rotation is a result of the gravitational interaction of the Earth’s body with the point mass disturbing bodies (the Sun, Moon and major planets). The orbital motions of the disturbing bodies are defined by the DE403/LE403 ephemeris (Standish et al., 1995). In the paper (Pashkevich, 1999) the numerical solution of the rigid Earth rotation was received in the Rodrigues-Hamilton parameters. The comparison of the results of the numerical solution of the problem with the semi-analytical solution of the Earth’s rotation SMART97 (Bretagnon et al., 1998) was carried out in Euler angles ψ, ω, ø over 2000–2199 time interval.