The mechanics of inertial motion on the Earth and on a rotating sphere (Q5950430)

The work is based on the valuable observation that the dynamics associated with the horizontal inertial motion along the Earth surface is the primordial problem of geophysics, dynamical meteorology and physical oceanography. Here the authors investigate the free motion on a rotating sphere. In explicit terms, the authors consider the dynamics in a rotating frame of reference in polar coordinates, polar trajectories on a rotating sphere and on the Earth, and free motion. Further, the author examine inertial motions on the rotating Earth and on the Earth moving as a simple pendulum. Finally, a number of geophysical implications are indicated suggesting a four-step scenario describing the inertial oscillaton on the Earth that starts from the non-rotating sphere to which rotation is just added, taking into account the effect of Earth's eccentricity. While one appendix treats the action-angle variables of a free particle on a sphere, the other deals with such variables of the inertial motion on the Earth itself. Thus, using the methods of analytical mechanics on manifolds, the authors present an exact solution of the title problem for two-degree-of-freedom integral systems.