Earth's Orbit
The Milankovitch theory, named after the Yugoslav mathematician who first proposed it, is the astronomical or orbital theory of climate variations. Since these ideas were put forward, much evidence from palaeoclimatic records has been found to support the theory. The original Milankovitch theory identifies three types of variation in the Earth's orbit around the Sun which could act as mechanisms to change the global climate. These include changes in the tilt of the Earths axis (obliquity), changes in the shape of Earth's orbit (eccentricity) and the shifting of the equinoxes (precession). Each variation has its specific time period, the shortest being 22,000 years and the longest being 96,000 years.
The three orbital variations together affect the total amount of sunlight received by the Earth, and distribution of that sunlight at different latitudes and at different times. With time periods measured in tens of thousands of years, one would expect that changes in climate as a result of orbital variations would occur over similar time periods. Indeed, the Milankovitch theory of climate change has been used to explain the global climate of the last 2 million years, with changes between warmer interglacial periods and colder Ice Ages occurring over a 100,00 year cycle, as predicted by the Milankovitch theory of climate change.
| Last 2 million years |
Print Topic
Websites
Other topics
Alaska Science Forum
NOAA Paleoclimatology
US Naval Observatory
Milankovitch Cycles
Geological Perspective
Illinois State Museum
Introduction
Atmosphere
Causes
Climate Forcing
Climate System
Comets
Continental Drift
Earth's Orbit
Energy Balance
Evidence
Feedback
Global Warming
Greenhouse Effect
Greenhouse Gases
Historical Records
Ice Ages
Ice Cores
Instrumental Records
Interglacials
Little Ice Age
Modelling
Mountains
Oceans
Palaeoclimate Change
Palaeoclimate Records
Palaeoclimatology
Sea Sediments
Sun
Time
Tree Rings
Volcanoes