Climate of Glacial Period

Abstract

We may say that the terrestrial climate has been rather unstable during the period since the beginning of Quaternary up to the present. The so-called Milankovitch's solar curve basing on his summer curve has been used by many researchers in order to explain the Quaternary glacial and interglacial alternation.
His another curve, the winter curve, suggests a latitudinal insolation difference which brings about a change of latitudinal temperature gradient in winter as in the case of summer. Therefore, the change of winter atmospheric circulation may possibly create a new glacial or interglacial period, though he did not mention such circulation regime. The minimum temperature period showed in his summer-half-year solar curve corresponds to the greatest temperature gradient in his winter curve at the middle and the high latitudes in northern hemisphere. If a meridional circulation type previals in winter, precipitation and temperature patterns in northern hemisphere become favorable to form new continental glaciers in the specified regions.
The author has criticized these considerations with the view point of recent researches concerning the global radiation, the atmospheric general circulation and also the meteorological events.