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A record of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrationsmeasured on the EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica)Dome Concordia ice core extends the Vostok CO2 record back to650,000 years before the present (yr B.P.). Before 430,000 yrB.P., partial pressure of atmospheric CO2 lies within the rangeof 260 and 180 parts per million by volume. This range is almost30% smaller than that of the last four glacial cycles; however,the apparent sensitivity between deuterium and CO2 remains stablethroughout the six glacial cycles, suggesting that the relationshipbetween CO2 and Antarctic climate remained rather constant overthis interval.
1 Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. 2 Laboratoire de Glaciologie et de Géophysique de l'Environnement (CNRS), 54 Rue Molières, 38402 St. Martin d'Hères Cedex, France. 3 Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Columbusstrasse, D-27568 Bremerhaven, Germany. 4 Institut Pierre Simon Laplace/Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, CEA-CNRS 1572, CE Saclay, Orme des Merisiers, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: stocker{at}climate.unibe.ch
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