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Obliquity forcing of low-latitude climate.
- Source :
- Climate of the Past; 2015, Vol. 11 Issue 10, p1335-1346, 12p
- Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- The influence of obliquity, the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis, on incoming solar radiation at low latitudes is small, yet many tropical and subtropical palaeoclimate records reveal a clear obliquity signal. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain this signal, such as the remote influence of high-latitude glacials, the remote effect of insolation changes at mid- to high latitudes independent of glacial cyclicity, shifts in the latitudinal extent of the tropics, and changes in latitudinal insolation gradients. Using a sophisticated coupled ocean--atmosphere global climate model, EC-Earth, without dynamical ice sheets, we performed two idealized experiments of obliquity extremes. Our results show that obliquity-induced changes in tropical climate can occur without high-latitude ice sheet fluctuations. Furthermore, the tropical circulation changes are consistent with obliquity-induced changes in the cross-equatorial insolation gradient, suggesting that this gradient may be used to explain obliquity signals in low-latitude palaeoclimate records instead of the classical 65°N summer insolation curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 18149324
- Volume :
- 11
- Issue :
- 10
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Climate of the Past
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 110557740
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1335-2015