Decomposition of the semidiurnal tide into the elastic and dissipative components. The primary is spinning at the rate , with    θ    being its sidereal angle. The secondary is orbiting the primary with the mean motion    n. The ellipse shaded green depicts the principal, semidiurnal mode of the tides exerted on the primary by the secondary. This is the mode numbered with     { lmpq }  =  { 2200 } . The semimajor axis of the green ellipse deviates from the direction towards the perturber by a geometric lag angle. For the semidiurnal tide, this angle is equal to , where    ϵ₂    is the phase lag as a function of the principal tidal mode    ω₂₂₀₀. It is shown here, in an exaggerated manner, how the principal tidal mode gets decomposed into two components. One is the elastic bulge depicted by the ellipse aligned with the perturber. Another is the dissipative bulge depicted with the ellipse aligned orthogonally.