The Influence of Solar Wind on Short Period of Earth’s Rotation

Abstract

It was suggested by Munk and Donald (1960)that the interaction between solar wind and geomagnetic field would probably influence the short period variation of angular velocity of the Earth. However, they did not make analysis in detail. By doing a correlation analysis in the yearly average of solar wind speeds and the annual change of △LOD, Kalinin (1980) obtained the correlation coefficient which was −0.84, i.e., the increase of solar wind speed makes Earth rotation velocity higher. But, with the calculation that the torque caused by solar wind was 10¹⁵Nm, Jaddy (1969)theoretically illustrated that the variation of Earth rotation could not explained from the viewpoint of solar wind energy. As an attempt to interpret the discrepancy between the theoretical analysis and statistical result,the author, taking the solar-terrestrial syetem a whole, bringe this problem to a clear answer.