I'm not asking about mercury level differences; the planet isn't melting daily and freezing nightly, but I've been thinking about this sort of thing for a specific planet I'm working on, one with an erratic orbital pattern I won't get into but which puts the poles at the perihelion yearly and the antihelion the other half. It's lead me to this topic described in the title, but I have no idea how to approach this topic - I hardly know what questions to ask besides "what would happen to the climate." The details are extremely specific. I'm not worried about the planet itself; I'll extrapolate from here once I know how the climate takes it's toll.
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1$\begingroup$ What details are extremely specific? When you say "equatorial temperatures," are you referring to Earth's equatorial temperatures, or your fictional planet's? If your fictional planet's, what are the equatorial temperatures and when? Can you provide a map of the planet? Climate questions are among the most complex asked on this Stack. With that map, please indicate ocean currents and depths, mountains and altitude. And tell us about your atmosphere. What's the axial tilt of the planet? We need a LOT of those extremely specific details to even start answering this question. $\endgroup$– JBHCommented Mar 4, 2023 at 23:07
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$\begingroup$ A possible solution could be a constantly shifting axial tilt. $\endgroup$– The CommanderCommented Mar 22, 2023 at 3:25
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$\begingroup$ The permafrost would melt and release all the methane stored underneath it. The planet would suffer a runaway greenhouse effect. See Venus for more details. $\endgroup$– shawnhcoreyCommented Mar 31, 2023 at 14:25
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$\begingroup$ Can you rephrase that, which seems backwards? if the poles reached equatorial temperatures every summer (but sub-zero temperatures in winter) how could that be anything but a result of climate change? $\endgroup$– Robbie GoodwinCommented Apr 1, 2023 at 22:05
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$\begingroup$ So a planet like Uranus, where the rotational axis and orbital path are 90 degrees to each other? $\endgroup$– JohnCommented Aug 28, 2023 at 18:55
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1 Answer
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As the details are a bit vague I will do my best with what would happen to earth if our poles were to melt.
The white colour of the ice reflects some of the suns energy back into space, I couldn't find numbers but the effect is mentioned in this article As such you should expect higher global temperatures on average especially as the poles are in darkness during the winter so despite being frozen half the year you will oose almost all of the reflection effectiveness.
The refreezing would likely have some affect on the animals in the area but I couldn't find any big effects on the climate from short term freezing.
TLDR, your world will be a bit warmer than before, resulting in basically the same effects as climate change, the fact that this is an ongoing yearly cycle means changes in sea level wont really be an issue but you should expect more hurricanes in the tropics than a comparable planet with perpetual ice.
I would be more worried about the climate effects of that orbital pattern you mentioned but that is a separate question.
