TheEearth begins to rotate faster and faster around its axis. This can lead to the fact that it is necessary to subtract a second from the universal time. This is not as small as it might seem. If you just take and remove this second, then all the equipment on the planet will begin to work intermittently. We will tell you how the rotation of the Earth can change everything around.
How does the speed of rotation of the Earth change?
The Earth is not a perfect ball or absolutely rigid body. It is acted upon by the gravitational forces of the Moon, the Sun and other large planets, for example, Jupiter. Therefore, the speed of rotation of the Earth can change. True, these changes are quite insignificant – about milliseconds per day.
According to observations, the rotation speed not only increases, but may also decrease. Moreover, during these processes, the position of the planet and the earth’s axis change, around which our planet revolves.
How do changes in rotational speed and axis position affect us?
The rotation speed of the planet and the coordinates of, for example, the North Pole may change, because of this, errors gradually accumulate in the reference systems of geographical coordinates and when calculating time. They can lead to accidents involving satellites, aircraft or ships. Therefore, GLONASS and GPS regularly update their data to minimize errors. Since 1902, scientists have tracked changes in time every year. Now time, measured by the rotation of the Earth, has begun to overtake atomic time. The current 365 Earth revolutions threaten to become a record short in 60 years of observations. If the planet continues to accelerate, then in 2026 the difference will approach the critical – 0.9 seconds. The keepers of time will be forced to subtract time by a second for the first time in history.
How to measure time accurately?
The standard of the second since 1967 is the atomic clock, which, unlike the rotation of the Earth, runs at a constant speed. Sometimes the difference between the Earth’s rotation time and the atomic time becomes critical, then scientists (usually this happens once every few years) at the end of December or June introduce an additional second. This was last done at the end of 2016. Waste of extra time has never been necessary.
An atomic clock is considered the most reliable way to measure time and find the error in other devices. Without an atomic clock, it would be impossible to develop satellite navigation systems like GLONASS or GPS: they determine the distance precisely by the time it takes a signal to travel from a point on Earth to a satellite and back. Modern navigation satellites are equipped with several rubidium, more compact atomic clocks.
The earth spins faster and changes time. Why is this happening?
So far, there is no exact answer to the question of why the Earth began to rotate faster. There are many factors that change the speed of our planet. For example, there is an 18.6-year cycle, according to which our planet is contracting along the equator, then expanding. This is due to the gravity of the moon.
Seasonal changes also affect. The earth can change its speed of rotation under the influence of air masses. The atmosphere changes the rotational moment of the planet. When the westerly winds intensify, it slows down a little. Therefore, it turns out that, on average, the longest days fall on May 1 and December 7, and the shortest – on August 4.
How the Earth’s Temperature Affects Rotational Speed
Scientists understand how the Earth’s shells affect its rotation, but synchronization with global temperature fluctuations remains unclear.
Early observations showed that the Earth accelerates during warming. For example, it happened in the 1930s, and a similar process is going on today. Despite this, the relationship between speed and temperature is not yet so obvious to researchers.
Global climatic processes and Earth movement
In a new work, which was published in the spring of 2021, scientists from China found that around the 1990s, the Earth’s pole shifted several decimeters to the east. The researchers blamed the super-rapid melting of glaciers, after which water began to redistribute over the planet’s surface.
Another recent article describes the Chandler wobble of the Earth’s axis of rotation – when the pole shifts a few meters in opposite directions every 14 months and, at the same time, the planet itself oscillates left-right. This oscillation has a cycle of 40 years. Now it is in the decay stage.
How fluctuations, global temperatures and Earth’s rotation rate relate to each other, scientists have yet to figure out. So far, it is too early to draw conclusions, the authors of the work emphasize.
