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Modelling the global climate response to orbital forcing and atmospheric carbon dioxide changes

Abstract

At least part of the record of climate change during the past million years may be attributed to forcing by changes in the geometry of the Earth's orbital system. Several attempts have been made to model the record of climate change (usually represented by the record of global ice volumes as recorded in marine sediments) using astronomical forcing1,2. These models have, in general, concentrated on the direct response of the ice sheets to changes in solar insolation resulting from orbital variations. So far no fully successful simulation of the climate record has been made. We investigate here the operation of a model which is forced simultaneously by changes in the distribution of solar insolation caused by orbital variations and by changes in the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration which are themselves forced by orbital parameters. The model results show the potential importance of other components in the climate system and their associated response to changing orbital parameters.

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Pisias, N., Shackleton, N. Modelling the global climate response to orbital forcing and atmospheric carbon dioxide changes. Nature 310, 757–759 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/310757a0

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