Different tilt of Earth

[Hans de Vries]

How would climate on Earth look like if the axial tilt was higher, say 45 degrees and not current 23.45 degrees?

 

Likewise, what if it was lower - 10 degrees for example?

[Robittybob1]

The Arctic and Antarctic Circles would be smaller so the poles would not be as cold. (So I presume) And the opposite if the angle of tilt was increased.

Edited February 14, 2016 by Robittybob1

[pavelcherepan]

Higher tilt - greater difference between seasons, lower tilt would cause the opposite. With a 45-degree tilt it's likely that polar ice caps might become seasonal, rather than permanent, which would raise the global water level and cause flooding of low-lying areas. Overall the climate changes will be dramatic.

[Robittybob1]

Higher tilt - greater difference between seasons, lower tilt would cause the opposite. With a 45-degree tilt it's likely that polar ice caps might become seasonal, rather than permanent, which would raise the global water level and cause flooding of low-lying areas. Overall the climate changes will be dramatic.

You could be right again! I was thinking originally that the low tilt might make the poles warmer but you are picking a higher tilt will do this.

Mercury which has virtually no tilt and has very cold poles (well put it this way; there is still water ice in the craters on the poles of Mercury yet the rest of the planet is bone dry).

[Hans de Vries]

With a 20 degrees higher tilt, could humans survive anywhere on Earth?

 

From what I gathered, effects of that would be utterly catastrophic.

1. Everything above 45th latitude would be in the Arctic Citcle - so one could see the midnight sun in Paris.

2. Oceanic climate as we know today would cease to exist. Areas that previously had mild climate (like UK) would now have harsh, continental climate with SIberian-like winters and summers comparable to Baghdad.

3. South Europe and the Middle East would become absolute hell - in winter there would be temperatures below or near freezing and during summer they would scorch in unbearable heat - temperatures in the range of 50-60 degrees Celsius would be common. The change in temperature would be accompanied with severe changes in preciptiation - there would be periods of extreme drought alternating with massive flooding.

4. Subsequently most of life on Earth would die.

 

[pavelcherepan]

Hans, I'm not sure this will be the case.

 

1. With lower tilt (20 vs the current 23.4 degrees) the territory that experiences polar day/night will actually decrease. You can check this by drawing a tilted and non-tilted Earth and see how light from the Sun will affect both hemispheres.

2. UK climate has nothing to do with tilt, it's due to the effect of Gulf Stream. Obviously, the change in tilt can result in Gulf Stream stopping and in that case UK and most of the Europe will have similar climate to Western Russia.

3. Not sure how you got to this conclusion.

4. Definitely not.

[Hans de Vries]

Simple - higher tilt means that during summer irradiance is higher than now. In the winter it's reversed - subsequently summers are hotter and winters get colder than now - by 15-20 degrees, maybe more!

 

Under such conditions most of the planet will be at least chillingly cold during winter and oppresively hot during summer, with maybe 2-3 months of . Heating costs would increase by an order of magnitude and electric grid will be put under enormous stress due to overuse of AC. Add crop failures, stronger winds (larger differences in surface temperature) and well... we're done. Maybe wearher will be tolerable at the equator and pockets of humans could survive there.

 

Well, if tilt gets 20 degrees LOWER (3.45 instead of 23.45 degrees ) many parts of the world will actually become warmer simply becausee snow that is there for a good part fo the year reflects a lot of light. The Siberian High would probably shut down too as the main factor contributing to it's formation (large air masses cooling over Asia in September-October) will be absent. And Siberian High is the main cause of low winter temperatures over much of Eurasia.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Hans de Vries