Dig Earth Studio

The Climate Machine

Here’s a planet. Change Earth’s orbit, CO₂, vegetation and clouds — or trigger an eruption — then give Earth time to respond in this interactive climate science experiment.

Take control

Adjust Earth’s orbit, CO₂ input and vegetation, then move through time. Earth determines the atmospheric response.

🛰️ Earth’s orbit

Modern orbit

Eccentricity 0.017

CircularElliptical

Axial tilt 23.4°

22°24.5°

Precession 102°

Seasonal timing360° cycle

Northern summer insolation: Modern-like

What are Milankovitch cycles?

Earth’s journey around the Sun changes slowly over thousands of years. These repeating changes are called Milankovitch cycles.

Eccentricity Changes how circular or elliptical Earth’s orbit is.

Axial tilt Changes the angle of Earth’s axis and how strongly the seasons differ.

Precession Changes the direction the tilted axis points, shifting where the seasons occur along the orbit.

Why it matters for climate: together, these cycles redistribute sunlight by season and latitude. Weaker summers at high northern latitudes can let more winter snow survive, helping ice sheets grow.

🌫️ CO₂ input

420 ppm

LessMore

🌿 Vegetation

100%

SparseLush

☁️ Clouds

100%

FewerMore

🌋 Volcano

Quiet

Inject stratospheric aerosols0%

⏳ Time

100 years

1 year1,000 years

Planet view

Sea level 0.0 m

Modern-ish Earth

The climate system is close to its starting point.

What Earth does

Net climate effect Baseline

Global temperature

14.0°C

Baseline

Atmospheric CO₂

420 ppm

Baseline

Ice cover

10%

Baseline

Sea level change

0.0 m

Baseline

Ice 0.0 m · Expansion 0.0 m

System feedbacks

Planetary albedo30%

Land albedo20%

Absorbed solar energy238 W/m²

Water vapor100%

Ocean heat uptake0%

Effective vegetation100%

Cloud effectNeutral

Volcanic cooling0.0°C

🧊 Challenge: Create an Ice Age

Cool Earth enough to reach at least 20% ice cover.

Not yet

Simplified conceptual model. The orbit controls represent Milankovitch-style changes in eccentricity, axial tilt and precession. These cycles mainly redistribute sunlight by latitude and season rather than changing the Sun’s total output; the model uses northern high-latitude summer insolation as a simplified ice-sheet forcing. Time begins at 1 year so every state represents a climate response rather than an instantaneous moment. Vegetation now has a stronger, bounded carbon-sink effect so large vegetation changes produce a visible atmospheric CO₂ response. It also responds to CO₂ fertilization and moderate warming before strong climate stress reduces it. Clouds include competing reflective and greenhouse effects. Volcano is now an event: stratospheric aerosols cause strong short-term reflective cooling and then decay. This represents volcanic aerosols, not volcanic CO₂.