World temperatures during the Pleistocene

• Published in: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
• Main Author: Simpson, George C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1959
• Subjects: North Pole
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/qj.49708536603; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fqj.49708536603; https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/qj.49708536603

Abstract In previous papers it has been shown that the glacial and pluvial periods of the Pleistocene can be explained qualitatively on the assumption that during this period there were three oscillations of solar radiation. Accepting this assumption the present day zonal temperatures ‐ mean temperatures along a circle of latitude ‐ are considered and the physics of the relationship between changes in solar radiation and the consequent changes in the zonal temperatures are discussed. By a graphical method of trial and error a family of curves relating the zonal temperatures of all latitudes with the oscillations of the solar radiation is prepared and discussed. These results are tabulated and used to plot curves showing the variations of the zonal temperatures of five latitudes between the Equator and the North Pole during a complete cycle of solar radiation and applied to the glacial and interglacial periods. The difference between the actual temperatures of any place and the zonal temperature of the latitude on which it is situated ‐ the so‐called temperature anomaly ‐ is then discussed and two diagrams are prepared showing the local temperatures at places in the British Isles and North America during the last cycle of solar radiation embracing the period from the beginning of the Mindel‐Riss interglacial to the present day. The geological evidence for the temperatures thus derived is briefly discussed.