The origin of the major ice-sheet variations during the last 2.7 million years is a long-standing mystery. Neither the dominant 41 000-year cycles in δ18O/ice-volume during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene nor the latePleistocene oscillations near 100 000 years is a linear (“Milankovitch”) response to summer insolation forcing. Both responses must result from non-linear behavior within t...

A methodology for developing a simple theoretical model for calculating global insolation on a horizontal surface is described in this paper. The input parameters to the model are the latitude of the desired location and the amount of total precipitable water content in the vertical column at that location. Both the parameters are easily measurable with inexpensive instrument such as global pos...

We investigated soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) distribution and developed a model, using readily available geospatial data, to predict that distribution across a mountainous, semi-arid, watershed in southwestern Idaho (USA). Soil core samples were collected and analyzed from 133 locations at 6 depths (n=798), revealing that aspect dramatically influences the distribution of C and N, with nort...

Idealized climate modeling studies often choose to neglect spatiotemporal variations in solar radiation, but doing so comes with an important decision about how to average solar radiation in space and time. Since both clear-sky and cloud albedo are increasing functions of the solar zenith angle, one can choose an absorptionweighted zenith angle that reproduces the spatialor time-mean absorbed s...

BACKGROUND Previous research has suggested that vitamin D and sunlight are related to cardiovascular outcomes, but associations between sunlight and risk factors have not been investigated. We examined whether increased sunlight exposure was related to improved cardiovascular risk factor status. METHODS Residential histories merged with satellite, ground monitor, and model reanalysis data wer...

Solar radiation management could be used to offset some or all anthropogenic radiative forcing, with the goal of reducing some of the associated climatic change1,2. However, the degree of compensation will vary, with residual climate changes larger in some regions than others. Similarly, the insolation reduction that best compensates climate changes in one region may not be the same as for anot...

Abstract Background Bipolar disorder is associated with circadian disruption and a high risk of suicidal behavior. In previous exploratory study patients bipolar I disorder, we found that history suicide attempts was differences between winter summer levels solar insolation. The purpose this to confirm finding using international data from 42% more collection sites 25% countries. Methods Data a...

The responses of a zonally symmetric model of the global energy balance to perturbations in incident solar radiation are anaLYzed. The model is forced with seasonally varying insolation and incorporates in a simple way the positive feedback due to the high albedo of snow and sea ice. Meridional em:rgy transport due to atmospheric motions is simulated with lateral diffusion of heat. Meridional e...