Orbital forcing in a stochastic resonance model of the Late-Pleistocene climatic variations

Applying a number of simplifying assumptions, we have used a zero-dimensional energy balance climate model (EBM) of the Budyko-Sellers type to investigate the degree to which the climatic variability of the Late Pleistocene can be explained by the mechanism of stochastic resonance. As a logical extension of an earlier version of this model we have included a more complete representation for the orbital forcings to show that a reasonably good agreement with the paleoclimatic record can be obtained. This zerodimensional EBM is appealing because of its simplicity and its ability to reproduce some of the most striking qualitative features of the observed climatic variability with a very limited number of parameters, several of which can be derived from either the observations or general circulation model (GCM) simulations of ice-age conditions.