On the Chandler periodicity (Polar Motion, LOD and Climate)

The 14-month Chandler period is associated with the free nutation of the Earth about its spin axis. The observed value of the Chandler period comes usually from the analysis of astronomical series of polar motion data as well as from superconducting gravimeter measurements. At the observation level a periodicity of about 420–440 days also was noticed in microseismic activities. Recently we found evidence of a signal with period similar to the Chandler one in the Sardinia rainfall time series.

Note on the Determination of the Neaely Diurnal Free Nutation (Core Nutation) and the Principal Term of Nutation Based on the Astrometric Data

Due to the highly accurate determination of the corrections to the nutation terms (the IAU-1980 nutation theory) by VLBI observations, the proposal for adoption of the new nutation theory or standard model of nutation is being discussed. At this point there are two unsolved problems:(a)VLBI observations can’t provide reliable estimates of the principal nutation term. The reason is that the correlation between this term and the precession constant is high due to the insufficient time span of these observations (about 10 years).(b)period of free core nutation (FCN) which depends on the ellipticity of the mantle-core boundary has not been, so far, reliably determined from direct observations.In the present paper, we would like to draw attention to the results of the analysis of astrometric latitude and time observations which could be useful for resolving these problems.