Amplitude and phase of glacial cycles from a conceptual model

The astronomical theory of climate, in which the orbital variations of the Earth are taken to drive the climate changes, explains many features of the paleoclimatic records. Nevertheless, the precise link between insolation variations and climatic changes during the Quaternary remains mysterious in several aspects. In particular, the largest sea level changes of the past million years occurred when insolation variations were minimal, like during stage 11, and vice versa like during stage 7. Moreover, recent data from terminations 11 and III show surprising phase lead and lag between insolation and sea level variations. To explain these paradoxical amplitude and phase modulations, we suggest here that deglaciations started when a combination of insolation and ice volume was large enough. To illustrate this new idea, we present a simple conceptual model that simulates the sea level curve of the past million years with very realistic amplitude modulations, and with good phase modulations. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.