New research shows Earth’s tilt influences climate change

“This finding shows that the tilt of the Earth plays a much larger part in ITCZ migration than previously thought, which will enable climate scientists to better predict extreme weather events.”

Phys.org reports:

3 thoughts on “New research shows Earth’s tilt influences climate change”

“How did the Sahara once have a monsoon? Well it’s all down to the amount of sunlight hitting the region. But not quite in the way you might think. It seems obvious that a hotter Sahara would have less rain, because it’s the opposite. Monsoons are not created by less solar energy, they are created by more. To get a Monsoon you need lots of solar energy that heats up the land creating a region of low pressure to suck cool moist air from the oceans towards it. Strange as it may seem 8000 years ago when the cave paintings in Wadi Sora were made the Sahara was getting more sunlight than it is now. And that extra heat helped bring the monsoon rains to this desert. But how did the Sahara get more solar energy?

It’s all down to our planets orientation to the Sun and how that changes over time. This orientation, which dictates the amount of sunlight we receive, is controlled by three main factors, Tilt, Precession and Orbit. 8000 years ago when the Sahara was green, these factors were different to what they are today. The science of this is very complex but here’s a simple summary of what was going on.

Currently the earth tilts at an angle of 23.4 degrees. But over a 41,000 year period it changes, wobbling between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees. Back when the Sahara was green, the tilt was close to its largest possible angle, 24.2 degrees. Which meant that 8000 years ago the Sun shone more directly, more intensely over the Northern hemisphere”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/23degrees/2011/06/will_monsoons_once_again_retur.html