The elevation of the Sun at noon is affected by the
obliquity of the ecliptic.
In which L and L' are the mean longitudes of the moon and the sun, [OMEGA] the longitude of the ascending node of the orbit of the moon and [epsilon] the
obliquity of the ecliptic with respect to the mean equator of the epoch of date (T = 0 gives the obliquity of both fundamental planes for the standard epoch).
Thus they refined such crucial parameters as the length of the year and settled the millennium-long problem of the varying
obliquity of the ecliptic.
In addition to the number of days in a year, the sine wave pattern of the ancient stromatolites contains information about another important astronomical parameter called the
obliquity of the ecliptic, or the angle between the planes of the earth's equator and the planet's orbit around the sun.