Atmospheric Tides and Earth Satellite Observations

Abstract

G. V. GROVES, in a recent communication¹, offered an explanation of the marked change in slope of the periodic time curves of the satellites 1958 β, 1958 δ 1 and δ 2. His suggestion of a relatively sharp discontinuity in atmospheric density on passing from the dark to the light side of the Earth is, however, at variance with the work of Kelvin, Rayleigh and Margules on the ultimate effect of solar heating. From their investigations one would expect, as suggested by Kelvin, that the atmospheric distortion produced on the irradiated side of the Earth would lead to a range of Fourier components, that one being most easily detected which corresponded most closely with a natural frequency of tidal waves in the atmosphere. The marked semi-diurnal oscillation in barometric height is ascribed to this effect, and Margules² has shown that this corresponds to the natural frequency of waves in a rotating isothermal shell of temperature 298° K.