The secular acceleration of the Earth's spin

Summary. The power spectrum of the Earth's spin has important components with periods ranging from a few days to at least a few thousand years, and probably to the age of the Earth. The secular acceleration, as the term is used here, refers to the components with periods longer than three centuries. In the year 600, the secular acceleration was —19.9 ± 0.8 parts in 10⁹ per century, while the value at the present time is less than half this size. The spin acceleration has important contributions from tidal friction and from an effect that is proportional to the square of the magnetic dipole moment. When these contributions are subtracted from the observed acceleration, we are left with a contribution that amounts to +41 parts in 10⁹ per century. This amount probably results from an unknown combination of changes in the size of the core, in the amount of glaciation, and in the size of the gravitational constant.