This natural phenomena hasn’t occurred since the 1960s
Scientists have discovered that the Earth spun faster in 2020 compared to previous decades with the last known occurrence in 1960. LiveScience revealed the discovery that the Earth’s top 28 fastest days all occurred in 2020 with the last occurrence nearly 60 years ago.
The Earth spinning faster results in shorter days and can decrease the time of one day by milliseconds also known as a leap second. Scientists attribute this change in the Earth’s rotation schedule to ocean and weather patterns.
Scientists have attributed influences on the Earth rotation signal can be observed through changes in the atmosphere. Atmospheric pressure around the world can influence the Earth’s rotation with wind climate changes such as the periodic natural warming of the tropics of the Pacific Ocean, El Niño.
La Niña occurred near the end of 2020 that acts to cool the same region of the Pacific with the opposite effects of El Niño. La Niña increases the earth’s rotation rate compared to El Niño that decreases the rotation rate.
This rare phenomenon is gaining attention from scientists to consider an unprecedented negative leap second rather than the tradition of adding a leap second. In the past, scientists would add a leap second to compensate for the slowing of Earth’s rotation but they’re considering subtracting instead of adding.
An international panel of scientists is discussing the possibility of replacing the negative leap second with the leap second. Scientists created the atomic clock in the 1950s to keep a precise track of time but the Earth’s rotation varies as two times indicates grow further apart.
Scientists created the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) to fix this inconsistency bridging the time gap between the atomic clock and Earth time. As time progressed, the atomic clock raced ahead leading scientists to add an extra leap second to the UTC at least once every 10 years and is important for GPS navigation.
