Detection of the Lunar Diurnal Atmospheric Tide

Abstract

A search was conducted for the principal lunar diurnal tide (O1) in an 18½ year time series of twice-daily digitized sea level pressure analyses covering the region 20?90°N. At 20, 25, 30 and possibly at 35°N there is evidence for a systematic variation of the zonal wavenumber one harmonic of the pressure as a function of the phase of the O1 tidal potential. This variation is clearly dominated by a westward traveling component (i.e., one that follows the tidal potential around the earth each day). The computed amplitudes are very small (less than 0.01 mb), and north of 35°N the random meteorological noise cbscures the O1 tidal oscillation to the point where it cannot be detected from analysis of the present data.