Record an acceleration in the Earth's rotation in a way that has not happened in 50 years

Weather of Arabia - Even the Earth wanted the year 2020 to end quickly, as scientists indicated that our planet was rotating faster than usual last year, as scientists recorded during 2020 AD the fastest 28 days passed on Earth since 1960 AD, as the Earth completed its rotations around its axis faster Than the average in milliseconds.

Earth's rotation around itself

The Earth revolves two main revolutions, a cycle around the sun, which takes a whole year and results in the four seasons, and a rotation around itself (or around its axis), which results in the succession of night and day, and it is known that the earth revolves around itself on average once every 86,400 A second, equivalent to 24 hours, and this is known as the solar day, but according to accurate measurements, scientists found that the solar day may be longer or shorter than 24 hours, meaning that the length of the Earth's daily rotation can vary by a fraction of a thousandth of a second.

Earth's rotation acceleration and leap second

Because of the inconsistent change in the speed of the Earth's rotation, scientists created an atomic clock to accurately track time during the day, but the atomic clock continued to advance steadily, separating it from the other time indicator (which is the rotation of the Earth), and to correct this divergence, scientists then created Universal Time. Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC ) to help bridge the gap between Earth time and the atomic clock, so scientists at least once every 10 years add one extra second to UTC, which is called a leap second, that second that has been added multiple times to compensate for the slowing down of the Earth's rotation. To date, a leap second has been added 27 times since 1972, the last of which was on December 31, 2016.

But in December 2020, it was decided not to add a leap second, which indicates that the Earth is rotating faster than it has been around 50 years ago. The recent acceleration in the Earth's rotation has made scientists talk for the first time about the need to subtract a second of time rather than adding a leap second.

This extra second may not matter in everyday life, but it has great significance in things like navigation via GPS , satellites, astronomy, spaceflight, as well as computer networks, stock markets, and much more.

The reason for the acceleration of the Earth's rotation

The speed of the Earth’s rotation can change slightly due to the movement of the liquid core of the Earth, but it has also been found that weather and ocean patterns have a clear effect on the speed of the Earth’s rotation and the length of the solar day, so strong changes in the atmosphere can have a direct impact on the Earth’s rotation, such as changes in the values ​​of atmospheric pressure. Around the world, and wind movements that may be linked to climate phenomena such as the El Niño phenomenon.

The phenomenon of El Niño is known as the periodic natural warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean, while there is another phenomenon called La Niña , which causes a natural cooling of the same part of the Pacific Ocean, and while the El Niño phenomenon leads to a decrease in the rate of Earth's rotation, it tends to La Niña, which was observed at the end of 2020, has the opposite effect and increases the Earth's rotation rate.

The acceleration of the Earth’s rotation can also occur for a variety of other reasons, including moon gravity, snowfall, erosion and erosion processes, and climate change can also be a factor, as global warming contributes to mass redistribution events on the Earth’s surface, such as a drop Ice mass due to melting glaciers.

Scientists expect 2021 days to be faster. They estimate days are now 0.05 milliseconds shorter on average, making 2021 19 milliseconds faster than previous years.