The Determination of Love's Number K from Tidal Variations of Rotation of a Compressible Earth

Abstract

Long period bodily tides (fortnightly and monthly) cause periodic changes of the Earth's moment of inertia and consequently the angular speed of its rotation.During the past few years the use of atomic clocks has made it possible to determine the amplitudes of these periodic variations of the Earth's rotation with high accuracy and has made this method very effective in determining Love's number K, which is dependent on the internal structure of the Earth (the most detailed studies were made in the U.S.S.R. – Pilnik and Gubanov).But up to now it was taken (Anderson, Woolard, Melchior, and others), that the formulae of Jeffreys and Woolard, which are used in this method, are valid only for incompressible Earth models.It is shown in this paper that the formulae are valid for the case of an actual compressible heterogeneous Earth. Thus, the method receives a real practical value. The use of lasers and radio methods in the near future will make this method even more effective.The full text of the paper will be published in the magazine Physics of the Earth in No. 3, 1972.