A note on orbital control of equator-pole heat fluxes

Abstract

We note that orbital (Milankovitch) variations, in particular the precession of the equinoxes, can lead to profound variations in the flux of heat from the tropics to higher latitudes. The mechanism involves changing the intensity of the Hadley circulation by varying the maximum displacement from the equator of the zonally averaged surface temperature maximum in summer. The precession of the equinoxes causes this quantity to vary by more than a factor of 2. The intensity of the Hadley circulation has a major influence on the heat fluxes in the winter hemisphere. Summer heat fluxes are generally small. Although the precession cycle is characterized by periods in the neighborhood of 20000 years, the variations are modulated by the eccentricity whose variation is dominated by periods in the neighborhood of 100000 years and 400000 years. We show how the fact that both small and large heat fluxes lead to low snowfall (and, hence, small glacial accumulation) causes the demodulation of the heat flux leading to dominant eccentricity periods in the resulting glaciation.