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Science 9 July 1999:
Vol. 285. no. 5425, pp. 227 - 230
DOI: 10.1126/science.285.5425.227
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Reports

Variations in Atmospheric N2O Concentration During Abrupt Climatic Changes

J. Flückiger, 1 A. Dällenbach, 1 T. Blunier, 1* B. Stauffer, 1dagger T. F. Stocker, 1 D. Raynaud, 2 J.-M. Barnola 2

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas that is presently increasing at a rate of 0.25 percent per year. Records measured along two ice cores from Summit in Central Greenland provide information about variations in atmospheric N2O concentration in the past. The record covering the past millennium reduces the uncertainty regarding the preindustrial concentration. Records covering the last glacial-interglacial transition and a fast climatic change during the last ice age show that the N2O concentration changed in parallel with fast temperature variations in the Northern Hemisphere. This provides important information about the response of the environment to global climatic changes.

1 Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
2 CNRS Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE), Boîte Postale 96, 38402 St Martin d'Hères Cedex, Grenoble, France.
*   Present address: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.

dagger    To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: stauffer{at}climate.unibe.ch

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