In a rare phenomenon, the Earth was observed rotating faster than usual. What is happening?

Arab Weather - In the summer of 2025, the Earth will witness a rare phenomenon. In recent years, scientists have recorded a slight acceleration in the Earth's rotation compared to the natural average, and some days have become shorter by a fraction of a second (millisecond). For example, July 9 and 22 and August 5 have become shorter than the usual duration by between 1.3 and 1.5 milliseconds per day.

Scientific reasons

According to NASA studies, melting ice and declining groundwater due to climate change since 2000 have contributed to changing the distribution of mass, slowing the Earth's rotation by 1.33 milliseconds per century.

However, the recent acceleration is most likely due to processes within the Earth, as current atmospheric and oceanic models cannot fully explain it. Although this acceleration is not observed daily (the difference is less than a thousandth of a second), it is a concern for scientists and timekeepers, as it may require the addition of a negative leap second in the future to adjust atomic clocks to the Earth's rotation.

Expected effects

The change is very small and imperceptible in daily life, but it affects the following:

• GPS systems.
• Satellites.
• The need to adjust atomic clocks (add or remove "leap seconds")