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The Specification of Nutation in the IAU System of Astronomical Constants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

G. A. Wilkins
G. A. Wilkins*
Affiliation:
Royal Greenwich Observatory

Abstract

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The principal purpose of the IAU system of astronomical constants is to provide a self-consistent set of constants for use in the computation of the international ephemerides of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars and in the reduction of observations of these bodies. At present nutation is computed from a theory of the rotation of the Earth as a rigid body and only the coefficient of the principal term in obliquity is specified in the system of constants. Such a simple specification will not be adequate for use with the more precise observations that are becoming available, and it appears that it will be necessary to adopt a new model of the Earth and to develop a new theory of nutation which will take into account the elastic properties of the Earth. The new model should be consistent with other constants of the IAU system, and with the model used in other branches of geophysics. The new specification of nutation should be formally adopted by the IAU in 1979 so that it can be used in the published ephemerides for 1984 onwards.

Type
Session I
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 78: Nutation and the Earth's Rotation , 1980 , pp. 1 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1980 

References

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