Milankovitch Cycles — Interactive Orbit & Insolation Visualization

About this visualization

Milankovitch cycles are the slow changes in Earth's orbit and axial tilt that pace the ice ages by varying how much sunlight reaches high northern latitudes in summer. This page animates all three cycles over the past one million years (−1000 to +60 kyr):

Eccentricity (~100 kyr) — the shape of Earth's orbit around the Sun;
Obliquity (~41 kyr) — the tilt of Earth's axis, which controls the strength of the seasons;
Climatic precession (~21 kyr) — the wobble that shifts where on the orbit the seasons fall.

The left panel shows the orbit viewed from above the north ecliptic pole. The right panel switches between a Precession view (the whole planet wobbling under fixed sunlight) and an NH summer view (the June solstice Sun–Earth distance, with a scrolling 65°N June-insolation strip — the classic ice-age trigger).

Data & credits

Orbital data: Laskar et al. (2004), doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20041335 (La2004 orbital solution).

Note: eccentricity exaggerated ×3 in the orbit view; NH-summer Sun–Earth distance exaggerated in the summer view; Earth's orbital phase is schematic.

−1000.0 kyr

Eccentricity (e)—

Obliquity (ε)—

Climatic precession (e·sinϖ)—

NH summer solstice—

Perihelion (closest to Sun)

NH June solstice (drifts with precession)

Loading data…

−1000.0 kyr