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A Case for Climate Cycles: Orbit, Sun and Moon

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Climate Development and History of the North Atlantic Realm

Abstract

The success of Milankovitch Theory — which states that ice age cycles are real and are a result of orbital forcing — has made climate cycle research thoroughly respectable. This was not the case when E. Brückner (1862–1927) pioneered climate cycles on the scale of decade-to-century, for the last 1000 years, publishing a century ago. In the last 20 years or so, Brückner’s claim that climate cycles exist at this scale has received much support. Work on solar-forced climate cycles suggests that such cycles interfere with the assessment of human-induced global warming. A portion of the general warming observed over the last century may be owing to solar activity. If so, this shows considerable sensitivity of climate to modest changes in forcing. The original Brückner cycle of 35 years is here suggested to be of tidal origin (twice the lunar perigee period). Likewise, the 1470-y Greenland cycle is proposed to be tidal in nature (as a beat between nodal and perigee cycles, effective during the summer season).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. California Space Institute, University of California, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0524, USA

    Wolfgang H. Berger

  2. Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Postfach 33 04 40, D-28334, Bremen, Germany

    Jürgen Pätzold & Gerold Wefer

Authors
  1. Wolfgang H. Berger
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  2. Jürgen Pätzold
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  3. Gerold Wefer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wolfgang H. Berger .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Universität Bremen, Klagenfurter Straße 2, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    Gerold Wefer

  2. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Geological Research Division, University of California, 92093-0215, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Wolfgang H. Berger

  3. Niedersächsisches Institut für historische Küstenforschung, Viktoriastraße 26/28, 26483, Wilhelmshaven, Germany

    Karl-Ernst Behre

  4. University of Bergen, Department of Geology, Allégaten 41, 5007, Bergen, Norway

    Eystein Jansen

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© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Berger, W.H., Pätzold, J., Wefer, G. (2002). A Case for Climate Cycles: Orbit, Sun and Moon. In: Wefer, G., Berger, W.H., Behre, KE., Jansen, E. (eds) Climate Development and History of the North Atlantic Realm. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04965-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04965-5_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-07744-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-04965-5

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