Open AccessIs the Chandler period variable?
Author(s) -
Okubo Shuhei
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
geophysical journal of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.302
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1365-246X
pISSN - 0016-8009
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-246x.1982.tb02789.x
Subject(s) - period (music) , variable (mathematics) , geology , series (stratigraphy) , constant (computer programming) , geodesy , mathematics , econometrics , statistics , mathematical analysis , physics , paleontology , computer science , acoustics , programming language
Summary This paper investigates whether the Chandler period is variable in time. The first step is to develop an Instantaneous Frequency Analysis to trace the time‐varying spectrum for a non‐stationary, complex‐valued time series. The method is then applied to the observed polar motion to find no significant fluctuation of the Chandler period. Next, the observational grounds of the variable period hypothesis are re‐examined. It is shown that the previous analytical technique does yield a fluctuating Chandler period even for simulation data of a constant frequency. We cannot find any positive evidence for the hypothesis.