althoughtheplanetarymotionexhibitsverylong-termstabilitydefinedasthenon-existenceofcloseencounterevents，thechaoticnatureofplanetarydynamicscanchangetheoscillatoryperiodandamplitudeofplanetaryorbitalmotiongraduallyoversuchlongtime-spans.evensuchslightfluctuationsoforbitalvariationinthefrequencydomain，particularlyinthecaseofearth，canpotentiallyhaveasignificanteffectonitssurfaceclimatesystemthroughsolarinsolationvariation(cf.berger1988). togiveanoverviewofthelong-termchangeinperiodicityinplanetaryorbitalmotion，weperformedmanyfastfouriertransformations(ffts)alongthetimeaxis，andsuperposedtheresultingperiodgramstodrawtwo-dimensionaltime–frequencymaps.thespecificapproachtodrawingthesetime–frequencymapsinthispaperisverysimple–muchsimplerthanthewaveletanalysisorlaskar's(1990，1993)frequencyanalysis. dividethelow-passfilteredorbitaldataintomanyfragmentsofthesamelenh.thelenhofeachdatasegmentshouldbeamultipleof2inordertoapplythefft. eachfragmentofthedatahasalargeoverlappingpart:forexample，whentheithdatabeginsfromt=tiandendsatt=ti+t，thenextdatasegmentrangesfromti+δt≤ti+δt+t，whereδt?t.wecontinuethisdivisionuntilwereachacertainnumbernbywhichtn+treachesthetotalintegrationlenh. weapplyanffttoeachofthedatafragments，andobtainnfrequencydiagrams. ineachfrequencydiagramobtainedabove，thestrenhofperiodicitycanbereplacedbyagrey-scale(orcolour)chart. weperformthereplacement，andconnectallthegrey-scale(orcolour)chartsintoonegraphforeachintegration.thehorizontalaxisofthesenewgraphsshouldbethetime，i.e.thestartingtimesofeachfragmentofdata(ti，wherei=1，…，n).theverticalaxisrepresentstheperiod(orfrequency)oftheoscillationoforbitalelements. wehaveadoptedanfftbecauseofitsoverwhelmingspeed，sincetheamountofnumericaldatatobedecomposedintofrequencycomponentsisterriblyhuge(severaltensofgbytes). atypicalexampleofthetime–frequencymapcreatedbytheaboveproceduresisshowninagrey-scalediagramasfig.5，whichshowsthevariationofperiodicityintheeccentricityandinclinationofearthinn+.5，thM.XｉAＰＥ.ｃoＭ