Earth axis moved 4 inches.

[Tincup]

Ok all you smarty pants answer me this. According to this article http://http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/as
iapcf/03/12/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth/index.html?hpt=T1

the earth moved 4 inches on it's axis.

My question is, why don't we have to re-tune our satellite dishes? Didn't everyone move 4 inches in a different direction after the quake?
The satellites are roughly 22K miles above us, 4 inches at that distance has gotta be a few miles

Somebody, please straighten me out

[tncruiser]

sats move in synchrony with the earth so if the axis moved the sats moved with it
im not an engineer but i did sleep in my gtown last week
brianj

[WeBeGone2]

The entire universe moved due to the earthquake in Japan...

[RVJeeper]

The link in the OP doesn't work. Here's the corrected link.

I wouldn't think that 4 inches would make much difference in that we aim our dish using degrees of direction, not measurement of distance. It would be like if you moved your satellite dish 4" after it's aimed and locked onto the satellite. Probably wouldn't make a tremendous difference in terms of degree setting on the dish.

[BryanL]

let's see. 4 inches is about 10 cm and the earth radius is 6,371 km. A geosynchronous orbit has a radius of 42,155 km or almost 7 times the earth radius. So, if all else is constant, a shift of 4 inches on the surface is about like a shift 28 inches at geosynchronous altitudes.

Now, compare that to the size of the satellite and to the pattern of your receiving antenna.

Or consider how much you'd have to change the aim of your satellite dish if you move across the campground.

Of course, you will need to adjust your clocks. PhysOrg reports somebody has calculated that the shift in the earth's mass distribution will cause the day to be about a microsecond longer than it was before the quakes - or was it shorter? whatever.

[WOODYDEL]

This affects us more.

Magnetic polar shift: Florida’s Tampa International airport closed its primary runway « P3air

Magnetic North Pole Shifts, Forces Runway Closures at Florida Airport - FoxNews.com

[codgerbill]

Does that mean my in motion dish wont find the satellite?

[two-niner]

I remember the runways at Reagan National were changed in 1999.

Runways 18/36 and 3/21 were changed (adjusted for magnetic drift) to 1/19 and 4/22. Maybe somebody has stock in a white paint company.

Don't know if they still do it, the FAA issues a monthly report to all airport showing their individual magnetic change.

Kerry

[BryanL]

If you use a magnetic compass to figure out your initial disk azimuth, you will need to make adjustments ... but a declination chart is usually sufficient as the movement of the poles is rather slow (see Magnetic Declination (Variation) Home ).

An in-motion dish just uses signal strength sampling to correct its aiming so, after it gets set up, it should compensate for all the earth and pole movements, I'd think.

Reports are that Japan moved about 8 feet so far. That is different from an axis shift (See The Earth’s axis has shifted 10 cm - Earth-issues.com | Earth-issues.com) which is different from magnetic pole wandering.

The axis shift thing is kinda' like what you do when you put weights on your wheel to balance its rotation. The weights on the wheel being moved around to change the center of rotation of the wheel (its axis) is like what is happening with Japan moving 8 feet.

If you do plan an RV trip in Japan, keep in mind that the map in your nav system might be off by 8 feet.

It is going to be interesting to see all the 'woe is me' catastrophic FUD mongers for the next few months. I already see the climate catastrophe and nuclear china syndrome (the antipode is probably something like south georgia or the sandwich islands or the abyss off Uruguay for Japan, though) types in full throat.

Meanwhile, prayers for those folks in Northern Japan. what a horror they face.

[bullheaded]

........2012...........getting near........

[doc]

"PhysOrg reports somebody has calculated that the shift in the earth's mass distribution will cause the day to be about a microsecond longer than it was before the quakes..."

Will the unions in Wisconsin demand overtime pay for this time period?

[Jack R]

I'm thinking global warming somehow caused this event. Haven't been able to reach Al to find out.

jack

[Hooligan]

Jack: It's true It's true----Some respond to Japan earthquake by pointing to global warming - Yahoo! News
The president of the European Economic and Social Committee said science proves that Global warming caused the earthquake. Then he got a little fuzzy on the science
And I thought the Politically Corrrect term now was "temporary widespread univeral thawing between ice ages"

[DonavonP]

Back when I was flying, I use to hate it when those runways would shift around. Even worse on a windy day. I wish George Bush would quit messing around with the controls.

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