  The climate record preserved in polar glaciers, mountain glaciers, and
widespread cave deposits shows repeated occurrence of abrupt global transitions
between cold/dry stadial and warm/wet interstadial states during glacial
periods. These abrupt transitions occur on millennial time scale and in the
absence of any known global-scale forcing. Here a theory is advanced
implicating a feedback between atmospheric dust and the hydrological cycle in
producing these abrupt transitions. Calculations are performed using a
radiative-convective model that includes the interaction of aerosols with
radiation to reveal the mechanism of the dust/precipitation interaction
feedback process and a Langevin equation is used to model glacial climate
destabilization by this mechanism. This theory explains the observed bimodal,
stochastic, and abrupt nature of the transitions as well as their intrinsic
connection with the hydrological cycle.
