Precession-driven low-latitude hydrological cycle paced by shifting perihelion

作者：Hu Yang, Xiaoxu Shi, Xulong Wang, Qingsong Liu, Yi Zhong, Xiaodong Liu, Youbin Sun, Yanjun Cai, Fei Liu, Gerrit Lohmann, Martin Werner, Zhimin Jian, Tainã M. L. Pinho, Hai Cheng, Lijuan Lu, Jiping Liu, Chao‐Yuan Yang, Qinghua Yang, Yongyun Hu, Xing Cheng, Jingyu Zhang, Dake Chen · 发表于：Climate of the past · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.5194/cp-21-1263-2025 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Geology and Paleoclimatology Research、Geophysics and Gravity Measurements、Climate variability and models

Abstract. Palaeoclimate proxies reveal a significant precessional impact on the low-latitude hydrological cycle. Classical theory suggests that precession modulates the inter-hemisphere summer insolation difference and hence controls the meridional displacement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Accordingly, low-latitude precipitation variations are expected to be in phase (for the Northern Hemisphere) or anti-phase (for the Southern Hemisphere) with the Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. However, increasing numbers of proxies, particularly those that are absolutely dated, reveal that variations in terrestrial precipitation at different low latitudes follow distinct precession rhythms that are very often out of phase with hemispheric summer insolation. The mechanism underlying such spatial–temporal complexity remains elusive. In this study, we performed theoretical analysis, climate simulations, and synthesis of geological records to hypothesise that the low-latitude hydrological cycle is paced by shifting perihelion rather than by the hemispheric summer insolation. More specifically, precession of the Earth’s rotation axis shifts the season and latitude of perihelion. Here, the latitude of perihelion is introduced as the latitude of Earth's subsolar point during perihelion, which is the location where the most intense solar radiation is concentrated. At the time of perihelion, intense solar radiation heats the land faster than the ocean due to differing therma...