Ice Age "news"

[novapsyche]

Random Noise Could Have Affected Climate in Ice Age

Under certain conditions, random noise such as electrical static can paradoxically increase a weak signal's detectability, and in general amplify the signal's influence on its surroundings. This phenomenon, called "stochastic resonance" (SR), has been observed in settings as diverse as chaotic lasers and human reflex systems.

Interestingly, researchers originally proposed the concept of SR in 1982 to explain how random climate events may have helped generate a regularly repeating interval of approximately 100,000 years between Ice Ages. However, subsequent evidence did not support this idea.

Now, SR is coming back home to climate: New research suggests that random "noise" could have triggered a climatic rollercoaster during the last Ice Age.

[...] If confirmed, this mechanism may help to explain why the Ice Age climate was so much less stable compared to that of the past 10,000 years, in which human civilization was able to thrive.

Comments

[ytterbius.livejournal.com]

Interesting but I'm not really sure what the article is talking about. I'd need more info. I know that the Earth's magnetic field has swithed polarities many times in our history but the article doesn't make clear that they are in fact talking about electro-magnetic noise (as they only imply) or by what mechanism this is translated into climate stability.