Milankovitch cycles
Article
Milankovitch cycles are long-term variations in Earth's orbit and rotational orientation that change the seasonal and geographical distribution of sunlight. The principal components are eccentricity, obliquity, and precession.
Eccentricity describes changes in the shape of Earth's orbit, obliquity changes the tilt of Earth's axis, and precession changes the direction of the axis and the seasonal position of Earth in its orbit.
These variations have characteristic timescales ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. They alter high-latitude summer sunlight and help pace the growth and decay of continental ice sheets.
Geological and paleoclimate records show strong relationships between orbital forcing and glacial-interglacial cycles. The response is amplified by feedbacks involving ice, greenhouse gases, oceans, vegetation, and atmospheric circulation.
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- Source / publisher: Wikipedia
- URL type: WWW
- Credits: Wikipedia
- URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles