College Level Meteorology

Page 215

Figure 41.

MILANKOVITCH CYCLES A Serbian mathematician developed a theory that helps explain changes in global climate based on several astronomical factors. He was Milutin Milankovitch and he developed a long-term strategy for why we have had ice ages, etcetera. His cycles are only part of the cycles we currently live with and that determine our climates all the time. What he looked at were three variations in our orbit that affect the sunlight we get in the amount of warmth the sun gives us in any given year. Out of these variations he created what are called the Milankovitch cycles that can change the incoming energy we received particularly in the middle latitudes. These three variations are related to the following:

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