Role of Milankovitch Cycles and Sunspots in Climate Change

Reader Contribution by Richard Hilderman and Ph.D.

The Milankovitch Cycles are small changes in the configuration of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun which induces slight changes in seasonal insolation (amount of radiation received per unit time at any one location).  These changes initiate the 100,000 year glacial-interglacial periods. Sunspots increase the intensity of solar radiation over short periods of time. One school of thought is the current global warming is only due to the Milankovitch Cycles and sunspots.  In this school of thought, anthropogenic forces (human induced) such as the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuel are not responsible for the current global warming trend.   

There are three Milankovitch Cycles that alter the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.  In the first cycle the Earth’s orbit around the Sun is not circular but is an elongated orbit which means the distance of the Earth from the Sun is not constant. The shape of the ellipse becomes slightly more elongated, then slightly more circular then back again.  A full oscillation in the elongation takes about 100,000 years.  When the Earth is closest to the Sun more solar radiation reaches the surface of the planet and the planet is warmer.  When the Earth’s orbit is farthest from the Sun the planet is colder.  

Tilt of the Earth axis of rotation is the second Milankovitch Cycle. The tilt varies from 21.1 to 24.5 degrees and back again every 41,000 years.  The greater the tilt the more intense is the winter and summer seasons in both hemispheres.  

The third cycle is the precession (rotation of a planet’s spin axis around a line drawn perpendicular to its orbital plane) of the Earth every 23,000 years. In other words the axis of the spin itself rotates around another axis (similar to the axis of a spinning top rotating around a second axis). This means that the Northern Hemisphere receives more solar radiation when precession points the North Pole toward the Sun at the same time the Earth’s orbit brings the Earth closest to the Sun.  

Glacial and interglacial periods are triggered by the combined effect of the three Milankovitch Cycles. However, the Sun’s insolation from these combined cycles is too small to account for the dramatic climate changes seen between the glacial and interglacial periods.  Other environmental forces must amplify the climate change the Milankovitch Cycles set in motion.  Arctic feedback factors, regulating the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide by rock weathering, cloud formation and volcanic eruptions are some examples of environmental forces (my postings entitled The Arctic Feedback Factor and Climate Change, The Carbon Cycle and Clouds, Volcanoes, Water Vapor and Climate Change). The Milankovtich Cycles are the trigger of glacial-interglacial periods while environmental factors are the amplifier. 

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