The glacial cycles and cosmic rays
J. Kirkby, A. Mangini, R. A. Muller
Abstract
The cause of the glacial cycles remains a mystery. The origin is widely accepted to be astronomical since paleoclimatic archives contain strong spectral components that match the frequencies of Earth's orbital modulation. Milankovitch insolation theory contains similar frequencies and has become established as the standard model of the glacial cycles. However, high precision paleoclimatic data have revealed serious discrepancies with the Milankovitch model that fundamentally challenge its validity and re-open the question of what causes the glacial cycles. We propose here that the ice ages are initially driven not by insolation cycles but by cosmic ray changes, probably through their effect on clouds. This conclusion is based on a wide range of evidence, including results presented here on speleothem growth in caves in Austria and Oman, and on a record of cosmic ray flux over the past 220 kyr obtained from the 10Be composition of deep-ocean sediments.
Create a lesson
Related papers
Evaluating the prediction of subgrid eddy kinetic energy from a machine learning model
Thomas Wilder, Ranjini Swaminathan, David Storkey et al.
Shifts in Rossby wave regimes via the change of group velocity with zonal jets
Zhixiang Li, Jianhua Lu, Yimin Liu et al.
Distinguishing Initial-Condition and Model Error Using Machine-Learning Weather Models
P. Trent Vonich, Gregory J. Hakim
A Multidimensional Evaluation Framework for Artificial Intelligence-Based Ocean State Forecasts
Ziqing Zu, Ye Yuan, Tiejun Ling et al.
RadarFill: Observation-Constrained Gap Filling of Systematic Blind Zones in 3-D Weather Radar Reflectivity Mosaics
Xin Huang, Haofei Sun, Wei Han et al.
Machine learning emulators of dynamic global vegetation models for fast gridded carbon budget predictions
Piyu Ke, Xiaofan Gui, Stephen Sitch et al.