ESD Ideas: Why are glaciations slower than deglaciations?

Abstract

Abstract. The Earth's climate during the Quaternary is dominated by short warm interglacials and longer cold glaciations paced by external forcings such as changes in insolation. Although not observed in the solar radiation changes, the time series of the cycles display asymmetry since transitions to full glacial conditions are slower than the termination of glaciations. Here an idea is proposed for the slower transition by identifying and describing two negative sea ice feedbacks dominant during the glaciation process that could serve as a control on the intermediate stage and decrease the pace of the process.