Abstract
A method has been developed for determining the N2O concentrations of air bubbles trapped in ice cores. The air is removed by cutting ice samples of about 45 cm3 with a rotating knife, under pure nitrogen. About 2 cm3 of the gas extracted from the ice is analyzed. The N2O concentrations are measured by gas chromatography, using electron capture detection with a detection limit of approximately 1 ppbv. The accuracy of the analysis is lower than 6%.
This method has been used to analyze 34 Antarctic ice samples. Twelve air samples are from the D57 core and date approximately from AD 1600 and 1900. Data indicate a concentration of about 270 ppbv approximately 400 years ago, and of about 293 ppbv for the beginning of the 20th Century. The other samples have been taken from the Dome C core and date back to the time period extending from the Holocene to the Last Glacial Maximum. The results obtained for the Holocene period are in very good agreement with the concentrations measured for the pre-industrial time from the D57 core and indicate that, during the Holocene period, atmospheric N2O mixing ratios may have remained fairly constant. The value observed during the last climatic transition suggest a slight increase in the N2O concentrations when the climate was warming up. The results obtained on samples formed during the Last Glacial Maximum show high scattering which is best explained by the bad quality of this part of the core.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barnola, J. M., 1984, Etude des variations passées du CO2 atmosphérique à partir de l'analyse de l'air piégé dans la glace, Thèse de troisième cycle, Université Scientifique et Médicale de Grenoble (unpublished).
Barnola, J. M., Raynaud, D., Korotkevich, Y. S., and Lorius, C. 1987, Vostok ice core provides 160,000-year record of atmospheric CO2, Nature 329, 408–414.
Bender, M., Labeyrie, L. D., Raynaud, D., and Lorius, C., 1985, Isotopic composition of atmospheric O2 in ice linked with deglaciation and global primary productivity, Nature 318, 349–352.
Bolle, H. J., Seiler, W., and Bolin, B., 1986, Scope 29, The Greenhouse Effect, Climatic Change, and Ecosystems, Wiley, Chichester, pp. 157–203.
Cicerone, R. J. 1987, Changes in stratospheric ozone, Science 237, 37–42.
Dickinson, R. E. and Cicerone, R. J., 1986, Future global warming from atmospheric trace gases, Nature 319, 109–115.
Etheridge, D. M., Pearman, G. I., and deSilva, F., 1988, Atmospheric trace-gas variations as revealed by air trapped in an ice core from Law Dome, Antarctica, Ann. Glaciol. 10, 28–33.
Hao, W. M., Wofsy, S. C., McElroy, M. B., Beer, J. M. and Togan, M. A., 1987, Sources of atmospheric nitrous oxide from combustion, J. Geophys. Res. 92, 3098–3104.
Khalil, M. A. K. and Rasmussen, R. A., 1988, Nitrous oxide: trends and global mass balance over the last 3000 years, Ann. Glaciol. 10, 73–79.
Lorius, C., Merlivat, L., Jouzel, J., and Pourchet, M., 1979, 30 000 yr isotope climatic record from Antarctic ice, Nature 280, 644–648.
Neftel, A., Oeschger, H., Schwander, J., Stauffer, B., and Zumbrunn, R. 1982, Ice core sample measurements give atmospheric CO2 content during the past 40 000 yr, Nature 295, 220–223.
Pearman, G. I., Etheridge, D., deSilva, F. and Fraser, P. J., 1986, Evidence of changing concentrations of atmospheric CO2, N2O and CH4 from air bubbles in Antarctic ice, Nature 320, 248–250.
Rasmussen, R. A. and Khalil, M. A. K., 1984, Atmospheric methane in the recent and ancient atmospheres: concentrations, trends, and interhemispheric gradient, J. Geophys. Res. 89, 11599–11605.
Rasmussen, R. A. and Khalil, M. A. K. 1986, Atmospheric trace gases: trends and distributions over the last decade, Science 232, 1623–1624.
Raynaud, D. and Delmas, R., 1977, Composition des gas contenus dans la glace polaire, Proc. Grenoble Symposium, IAHS 118, pp. 377–381.
Raynaud, D., Delmas, R., Ascencio, J. M., and Legrand, M., 1982, Gas extraction from polar ice cores: a critical issue for studying the evolution of atmospheric CO2 and ice-sheet surface elevation, Ann. Glaciol. 3, 265–268.
Raynaud, D. and Barnola, J. M., 1985, CO2 and climate: information from Antarctic ice core studies, Current Issues in Climate Research, Proc. of the EC Climatology Programme Symposium, Sophia Antipolis, France, October 1984, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, pp. 240–246.
Raynaud, D., Chappelaz, J., Barnola, J. M., Korotkevich, Y. S., and Lorius, C., 1988, Climatic and CH4 cycle implications of glacial-interglacial CH4 change in the Vostok ice core, Nature 333, 655–657.
Schwander, J. and Stauffer, B., 1984, Age difference between polar ice and the air trapped in its bubbles, Nature 311, 45–47.
Stauffer, B., Lochbronner, E., Oeschger, H., and Schwander, J. 1988, Methane concentration in the glacial atmosphere was only half that of the preindustrial Holocene, Nature 332, 812–814.
Weiss, R. F. 1981, The temporal and spatial distribution of tropospheric nitrous oxide, J. Geophys. Res. 86, 7185–7195.
WMO Report No. 16, 1985, Atmospheric Ozone, 77–84.
Zanolini, F., Delmas, R. J., and Legrand, M., 1985, Sulphuric and nitric acid concentrations and spikes along a 200 m deep ice core at D57 (Terre Adélie, Antarctica), Ann. Glaciol. 7, 70–75.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zardini, D., Raynaud, D., Scharffe, D. et al. N2O measurements of air extracted from antarctic ice cores: Implication on atmospheric N2O back to the last glacial-interglacial transition. J Atmos Chem 8, 189–201 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053723
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053723