Radiation windows as indicators of an astronomical influence on the Devil's Hole chronology

Orbital explanations of paleoclimatic records traditionally focus on daily insolation at ∼60°N. We exemplify how insolation at different latitudes and different times of day can explain the timing of the Devil's Hole δ¹⁸O record. We combine winter tropical noontime insolation (associated with the source-region for wintertime precipitation) and summer extra-tropical noontime insolation (producing noontime heat to warm terrestrial surfaces). Periods of low winter and high summer insolation are called "radiation windows" and yield drier-warmer conditions in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes. When radiation windows are compared with the DH-11 record, the apparent contradiction with Milankovitch (Winograd et al., 1992) may be resolved. The middle-latitude continental climate signal, as recorded by DH-11, tends toward a cooling state until interrupted by a termination. In every instance where the DH-11 record is warming before a radiation window, a termination occurs. If radiation windows occur with antecedent cooling, then there is a complex response of warming with a variable lag effect. Yet, there are no cases where cooling follows a radiation window.