Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 27 October 2000:
Vol. 290. no. 5492, pp. 697 - 698
DOI: 10.1126/science.290.5492.697
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

News Focus

CLIMATOLOGY:
Does a Climate Clock Get a Noisy Boost?

Richard A. Kerr

Three researchers pondering what could be behind a roughly 1500-year cycle of warming and cooling are suggesting that it is a combination of two climate drivers, each too weak to have a large effect on its own. When a strictly periodic cycle teams up with just the right amount of thoroughly irregular noise, the combination could achieve "stochastic resonance" and set off the dramatic climate shifts of the last ice age--or the next, possibly human-triggered, Little Ice Age. No one is claiming the case is proven, but if true it will complicate predictions of future climate.

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)