| Title | Astronomical theory of paleoclimates [Théorie astronomique des paléoclimats] |
| Author | Berger, A.; Loutre, M.F. |
| Author Affil | Berger, A., Université Catholique de Louvain, Institut d'Astronomie et de Géophysique Georges-Lemaître, Louvain- la-Neuve, Belgium |
| Source | Paléoclimatologie--Palaeoclimatology, edited by A. Berger and J. Duplessy. Comptes Rendus - Académie des Sciences. Géoscience, 336(7-8), p.701-709, . Publisher: Elsevier, Paris, France. ISSN: 1631- 0713 |
| Publication Date | Jun. 2004 |
| Notes | In French with English summary. 33 refs. GeoRef Acc. No: 285219 |
| Index Terms | climatic change; greenhouse effect; hydrocarbons; insolation; models; paleoclimatology; aliphatic hydrocarbons; alkanes; atmosphere; carbon dioxide; Cenozoic; climate change; climate forcing; concentration; cycles; glacial environment; interglacial environment; methane; Milankovitch theory; orbital forcing; organic compounds; Phanerozoic; precession; Quaternary; rotation |
| Abstract | The astronomical theory of paleoclimates aims to explain the recurrence of the glacial-interglacial cycles that characterizes the Quaternary climate. It is based on the latitudinal and seasonal distributions of the energy that the Earth receives from the Sun. Their variations in time depend on three astronomical parameters: the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit, the inclination of its axis of rotation and the climatic precession. These astronomical variations are in turn amplified by feedback mechanisms in the climate system such as those related to the albedo, the water vapor and other greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4), the ice sheets and the lithosphere below them. Climate models of different complexity have shown that the long-term variations of the astronomical parameters are the pacemaker of the climatic variations during the Quaternary (and other geological times) at the time scales of tens to hundreds of thousands of years. To cite this article: A. Berger, M. F. Loutre, C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004). |
| URL | http://hdl.handle.net/10.1016/j.crte.2004.02.006 |
| Publication Type | journal article |
| Record ID | 62005320 |