SEP 24, 2007 - Orbital Variations is NOAA'S popular introduction to the Milankovitch Theory, a now generally accepted astronomical explanation for climate change devised by the Serbian engineer and geophysicist Milutin Milankovitch ((1879–1958). In brief, it's a theory that ties climate to cycles in Earth's orbit around the Sun, including the eccentricity of the orbital path (i.e. variations in the ellipticality versus circularity of the orbit), the precession of the equinoxes (when summer solstice coincides with perihelion, look out!), and the obiquity (tilt) of Earth's axis relative to the plane of the planet's orbit. Certainly these are contributing factors, as are other cosmic inductions (solar radiation cycles): oops, there's that "As Above, So Below" stuff again. (Did somebody say the "a word", as in astrology?)
