A number of the Earth’s geophysical behaviors characterized by cycles have both a solar and lunar basis. For the ubiquitous ocean tides, the magnitude of each factor are roughly the same — rationalized by the fact that even though the sun is much more massive than the moon, it’s much further away.
However, there are several behaviors that even though they have a clear solar forcing, lack a lunar counterpart. These include the Earth’s fast wobble, the equatorial SAO/QBO, ENSO, and others. The following table summarizes how these gaps in causation are closed, with the missing lunar explanation bolded. Unless otherwise noted by a link, the detailed analysis is found in the text Mathematical Geoenergy.
| Geophysical Behavior | Solar Forcing | Lunar Forcing |
|---|---|---|
| Conventional Ocean Tides | Solar diurnal tide (S1), solar semidiurnal (S2) | Lunar diurnal tide (O1), lunar semidiurnal (M2), |
| Length of Day (LOD) Variations | Annual, semi-annual | Monthly, fortnightly, 9-day, weekly |
| Long-Period Tides | Solar annual variations (Sa), solar semi-annual (Ssa) | Fortnightly (Mf), monthly (Mm, Msm), mixed harmonics |
| Chandler Wobble | Annual wobble | 433 day cycle caused by draconic stroboscopic effect |
| Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) | Semi-Annual Oscillation (SAO) above QBO in altitude | 28-month caused by draconic stroboscopic effect |
| El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) | Seasonal impulse acts as carrier and spring unpredictability barrier | Erratic cycling caused by draconic + other tidal factors per stroboscopic effect |
| Eclipse events | Sun-Moon alignment (draconic cycle critical) | Sun-Moon alignment (draconic cycle critical) |
| Other Climate Indices and MSL | Strong annual modulation and trigger | Similar to ENSO, see https://github.com/pukpr/GEM-LTE |
| Milankovitch Cycles | Eccentricity, obliquity, and precession | Axial drift in precessional cycle |
| Regression of nodes (nutation) | Controlled +/- about the Earth-Sun ecliptic plane | Draconic & tropical define an 18.6 year beat in nodal crossings |
| Atmospheric ringing | Daily atmospheric tides | Fortnightly modulation https://geoenergymath.com/the-just-so-story-narrative/ |
| Seasonal Climate | Annual tilted orbit around the sun | – |
| Daily Climate | Earth’s rotation rate | – |
| Anthropogenic Global Warming | – | – |
| Seismic Activity | (sporadic stochastic trigger) | (sporadic stochastic trigger) |
| Geomagnetic, Geothermal, etc | ? | ? |
The most familiar periodic factors – the daily and seasonal cycles – being primarily radiative processes obviously have no lunar counterpart.
And climate science itself is currently preoccupied with the prospect of anthropogenic global warming/climate change, which has little connection to the sun or moon, so the significance of the connections shown is largely muted by louder voices.
References:
- Mathematical Geoenergy, 2019 (in BOLD)
- Cartwright & Edden, Tidal Generation studies
- Various oceanography & geodesy literature
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