Milankovich

The Milankovitch orbital elements describe long-term variations in a planet's orbit around the Sun, primarily used to explain climate changes on Earth over tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. These elements focus on how the shape, tilt, and orientation of Earth’s orbit change over time, impacting the amount and distribution of solar energy the planet receives. They are named after the Serbian scientist Milutin Milankovitch, who theorized that these variations drive cyclical climatic patterns, such as glacial and interglacial periods.

Image of Milankovich Orbital Elements [2]

Components

The element set use the angular momentum vector and the eccentricity vector to define the orbit and uses the mean anomaly to describe where in the orbit a body is

• Angular Momentum Vector
  • X-component of Angular Momentum Vector (hx)
  • Y-component of Angular Momentum Vector (hy)
  • Z-component of Angular Momentum Vector (hz)
• Eccentricity Vector
  • X-component of Eccentricity Vector (ex)
  • Y-component of Eccentricity Vector (ey)
  • Z-component of Eccentricity Vector (ez)
• Mean Anomaly
  • True Longitude (L): The angle between the satellite's current position and the RAAN, and the angle between RAAN and the vernal equinox.

References

[1]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263032883OntheMilankovitchorbitalelementsforperturbedKeplerianmotion#fullTextFileContent [2]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338021512UtilizingMaximumEntropySpectralAnalysisMESAtoidentifyMilankovitchcyclesinLowerMemberofMioceneZhujiangFormationinnorthslopeofBaiyunSagPearlRiverMouthBasinSouthChina_Sea