Related papers: The Earths long-term climate changes and ice ages:…
In the coming decades, the discovery of the first truly Earth-like exoplanets is anticipated. The characterisation of those planets will play a vital role in determining which are chosen as targets for the search for life beyond the Solar…
The astronomical theory of Milankovitch relates the changes of Earth' past climate to variations in insolation caused by oscillations of the orbital parameters. However, this theory has problems to account for some major observed phenomena…
In coming years, the first truly Earth-like planets will be discovered orbiting other stars, and the search for signs of life on these worlds will begin. However, such observations will be hugely time-consuming and costly, and so it will be…
In the coming years, it is likely that the first potentially Earth-like planets will be discovered orbiting other stars. Once found, the characterisation of those planets will play a vital role in determining which will be chosen as the…
The Milankovitch theory states that the orbital eccentricity, precession, and obliquity of the Earth influence our climate by modulating the summer insolation at high latitudes in the northern hemisphere. Despite considerable success of…
The obliquity of the Earth, which controls our seasons, varies by only ~2.5 degrees over ~40,000 years, and its eccentricity varies by only ~0.05 over 100,000 years. Nonetheless, these small variations influence Earth's ice ages. For…
Although the Earth's orbit is never far from circular, terrestrial planets around other stars might experience substantial changes in eccentricity that could lead to climate changes, including possible "phase transitions" such as the…
The Milankovitch cycles of Earth result from gravitational interactions with other bodies in the Solar System. These interactions lead to slow changes in the orbit and angular momentum vector of Earth, and correspondingly influence Earth's…
The Earth's revolution is modified by changes in inclination of its rotation axis. Despite the fact that the gravity field is central, the Earth's trajectory is not closed and the equinoxes drift. Milankovic (1920) argued that the shortest…
An intriguing problem in climate science is the existence of Earth's glacial cycles. We show that it is possible to generate these periodic changes in climate by means of the Earth's carbon cycle as the main determinant factor. The carbon…
Astronomical (or Milankovi\'c) forcing of the Earth system is key to understanding rhythmic climate change on time scales >~ 10 kyr. Paleoceanographic and paleoclimatological applications concerned with past astronomical forcing rely on…
In his mathematical theory, Milankovic finds a link between the heat received by the Earth surface per unit time as a function of the solar ephemerids and derives a model of climate changes at periods longer than a few thousand years and…
This chapter is dedicated to the slow dynamics of the climate system, at time scales of one~thousand to one million years. We focus specifically on the phenomenon of ice ages that has characterised the slow evolution of climate over the…
The 100,000-year problem concerns the dominant period of glacial-interglacial cycles over the past 800,000 years and their correlation with Earth's orbital eccentricity, despite eccentricity's weak influence on solar radiation. Two theories…
This thesis assesses the influence of astronomical phenomena on the Earth's biosphere and climate. I examine in particular the relevance of both the path of the Sun through the Galaxy and the evolution of the Earth's orbital parameters in…
In a recent article by Scafetta, 2010, the author investigates whether or not the decadal and multi-decadal climate oscillations have an astronomical origin. In particular, the author note that several global surface temperature records,…
Orbital forcing plays a key role in pacing the glacial-interglacial cycles. However, the mechanistic linkages between the orbital parameters - eccentricity, obliquity, and precession - and global ice volume remain unclear. Here, we…
Climate variability over the past million years shows a strong glacial-interglacial cycle of ~100,000 years as a combined result of Milankovitch orbital forcing and climatic resonance. It has been suggested that anthropogenic contributions…
Climate change is an important current issue and there is much debate about the causes and effects. This article examines the changes in our climate, comparing the recent changes with those in the past. There have been changes in…
The cause of the glacial cycles remains a mystery. The origin is widely accepted to be astronomical since paleoclimatic archives contain strong spectral components that match the frequencies of Earth's orbital modulation. Milankovitch…