Reply to comments by S. R. Dickman on ‘Fortnightly Earth rotation, ocean tides and mantle anelasticity’.

Dickman argues that our model of the Mf ocean tide is unrealistic and that this invalidates conclusions regarding mantle anelasticity. His evidence is based on comparison with his own ocean modelling experiments and on his physical intuition regarding near-equilibrium tides. That evidence is unconvincing. Simple physical arguments alone are enough to rebut his main points. Furthermore, we test here his suggestion of increasing bottom-friction dissipation by a factor of 100 over our preferred solution, and we show that this results in unacceptable polar motion and poor agreement with independent tide-gauge data. In contrast, tests against independent data lend support to the realism of our Mf tide model and give confidence that our estimates of mantle anelasticity are reliable within stated error bounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]