Solar System

Josh Bernard

UNST 232

1. Why are June and December insolation curves particularly useful in climate analysis?

The June and December insolation curves are useful in climate analysis because that is when the northern and southern hemispheres are receiving there highest temperatures which make them easier to analyze

2. Using the Vostok workbook, construct a plot of temperature variation at Vostok station over the last 420 thousand years.

a. What is the frequency of the dominant (largest) temperature cycle?

On this graph it looks to be about every 100,000 years.

b. Sketch the shape of the temperature cycle—is it a symmetric or asymmetric cycle?

c. Compare temperature variation during the last 20,000 years with variation over the time span from 140,000 years ago to 120,000 years ago. How are the trends similar and how are they different?

Age A which is the last 20,000 years looks to be very similar to age B( adjusted). Age B seemed to have a increase in tempeture that age A didn’t have.

3. Using the Vostok workbook, construct the following plots of insolation over time:

• summer insolation at 60N and 60S

a. Are northern and southern hemisphere insolation cycles in phase or out of phase?

Looking at this scattergraph it looks as if the insolation cycles are out of phase of each other. I shortened the time on the axis to see the frequency’s clearer.

b. Construct plots to compare summer insolation at 60N and 60S with the air temperature at Vostok. The time axis should be from 0 to 420 thousand years.

Changes in which hemisphere seem most closely related to changes in air temperature at Vostok? Explain your answer.

I had to do some adjusting to plots so that I could see closer what was happening with the temperature. The southern hemisphere seems to have the more similar air temperatures than the northern. The northern hemisphere’s temperatures...