Early Pleistocene Glacial Cycles and the Integrated Summer Insolation Forcing

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Title:	Early Pleistocene Glacial Cycles and the Integrated Summer Insolation Forcing
Author:	Huybers, Peter John
Citation:	Huybers, Peter J. 2006. Early Pleistocene glacial cycles and the integrated summer insolation forcing. Science 313(5786): 508-511.
Full Text & Related Files:	Huybers_EarlyPleistoceneSummer.pdf (335.4Kb; PDF)
Abstract:	Long-term variations in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation are generally thought to control glaciation. But the intensity of summer insolation is primarily controlled by 20,000-year cycles in the precession of the equinoxes, whereas early Pleistocene glacial cycles occur at 40,000-year intervals, matching the period of changes in Earth’s obliquity. The resolution of this 40,000-year problem is that glaciers are sensitive to insolation integrated over the duration of the summer. The integrated summer insolation is primarily controlled by obliquity and not precession because, by Kepler’s second law, the duration of the summer is inversely proportional to Earth’s distance from the Sun.
Published Version:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1125249
Other Sources:	http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~phuybers/
Terms of Use:	This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAA
Citable link to this page:	http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3382981

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