![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/MilankovitchCyclesOrbitandCores.png/640px-MilankovitchCyclesOrbitandCores.png&w=640&q=50)
Milankovitch cycles
Global climate cycles / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Milankovitch cycles describe the collective effects of changes in the Earth's movements on its climate over thousands of years. The term was coined and named after the Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković. In the 1920s, he hypothesized that variations in eccentricity, axial tilt, and precession combined to result in cyclical variations in the intra-annual and latitudinal distribution of solar radiation at the Earth's surface, and that this orbital forcing strongly influenced the Earth's climatic patterns.[1][2]
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/MilankovitchCyclesOrbitandCores.png/640px-MilankovitchCyclesOrbitandCores.png)
- Graphic shows variations in five orbital elements:
Precession index (e sin(ϖ))
- Precession index and obliquity control insolation at each latitude:
Daily-average insolation at top of atmosphere on summer solstice (
) at 65° N
- Ocean sediment and Antarctic ice strata record ancient sea levels and temperatures: Vostok ice core (Antarctica)
- Vertical gray line shows present (2000 CE)