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High and low tide in the Bay of Fundy. The theory of tides is the application of continuum mechanics to interpret and predict the tidal deformations of planetary and satellite bodies and their atmospheres and oceans (especially Earth's oceans) under the gravitational loading of another astronomical body or bodies (especially the Moon and Sun).
For example, the lunar tidal acceleration at the Earth's surface along the Moon–Earth axis is about 1.1 × 10 −7 g, while the solar tidal acceleration at the Earth's surface along the Sun–Earth axis is about 0.52 × 10 −7 g, where g is the gravitational acceleration at the Earth's surface.
Body tides also exist in other astronomical objects, such as planets and moons. In Earth's moon, body tides "vary by about ±0.1 m each month." [11] It plays a key role in long-term dynamics of planetary systems. For example, it is due to body tides in the Moon that it is captured into the 1:1 spin-orbit resonance and is always showing us one side.
The changing distance separating the Moon and Earth also affects tide heights. When the Moon is closest, at perigee, the range increases, and when it is at apogee, the range shrinks. Six or eight times a year perigee coincides with either a new or full moon causing perigean spring tides with the largest tidal range. The difference between the ...
Tidal range is the difference in height between high tide and low tide. Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and Sun, by Earth's rotation and by centrifugal force caused by Earth's progression around the Earth-Moon barycenter. Tidal range depends on time and location.
Munk & Wunsch (1998) estimated that Earth experiences 3.7 TW (0.0073 W/m 2) of tidal heating, of which 95% (3.5 TW or 0.0069 W/m 2) is associated with ocean tides and 5% (0.2 TW or 0.0004 W/m 2) is associated with Earth tides, with 3.2 TW being due to tidal interactions with the Moon and 0.5 TW being due to tidal interactions with the Sun. [3] Egbert & Ray (2001) confirmed that overall ...
The NASA astronauts who became the first people to land on the moon's surface in the 1960s and 1970s also discovered a previously unknown lunar characteristic - it has an atmosphere, though quite ...
The net tide raised on Earth by the Moon is dragged ahead of the Moon by Earth's much faster rotation. Tidal friction is required to drag and maintain the bulge ahead of the Moon, and it dissipates the excess energy of the exchange of rotational and orbital energy between Earth and the Moon as heat. If the friction and heat dissipation were not ...