PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to establish a model of two-dimensional half-space problem of linear, isotropic, homogeneous, initially stressed, rotating thermoelastic medium with microtemperatures. The expressions for different physical variables such as displacement distribution, stress distribution, temperature field and microtemperatures are obtained in the physical domain.Design/methodology/approachNormal mode analysis technique is adopted to procure the exact solution of the problem.FindingsNumerical computations have been carried out with the help of MATLAB programming, and the results are illustrated graphically. Comparisons are made to show the effects of rotation, time and microtemperatures on the resulting quantities. The graphical results indicate that the effects of rotation, microtemperatures and time are very pronounced on the field variables.Originality/valueIn the present work, we have investigated the effects of rotation, time and microtemperature in an initially stressed thermoelastic medium. Although various investigations do exist to observe the disturbances in a thermoelastic medium under the effects of different parameters, the work in its present form, i.e. the disturbances in a thermoelastic medium in the presence of angular velocity, initial stress and microtemperature have not been studied till now. The present work is useful and valuable for analysis of problems involving coupled thermal shock, rotation parameter, microtemperatures and elastic deformation.