Abstract
A two‐step technique, in which the N2O/CO2 ratio is measured by ultrasonic phase‐shift gas chromatography and the dry air CO2 concentration is measured by nondispersive infrared analysis, has been developed for the determination of the mole fraction of nitrous oxide in dry air. The N2O concentration is given by the product of these two independent measurements and has a precision (±1 standard deviation) ranging between 0.3 and 0.5%. The absence of systematic errors has been verified by extensive standard intercomparisons and by independent cross checks of the sample extraction procedures. The results of extensive measurements by this technique, reported in a companion paper, fix the mean tropospheric dry air mole fraction of nitrous oxide in the northern hemisphere as of January 1, 1978 at 300.2±0.6 parts per billion, including systematic uncertainties.
Published Version
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