Other Names

Nitrous oxide, N₂O, Laughing gas

Definition

Nitrous oxide (N₂O), a colorless gas, is a major greenhouse gas that absorbs infrared radiations.
Near the surface, it is naturally produced through bacteriological decomposition of organic matter. The main anthropogenic sources are from agriculture and number of industrial processes. From the troposphere it gets transported to the stratosphere. Nitrous oxide is removed mainly by the photolysis. It has a long lifetime of about 160 years. It is currently present at a level of about 330 ppb. In large amounts, it has anesthetic properties (laughing gas) and is used in the medicine.

Applications

(1) Atmospheric Chemistry Models	(3) Health and Environment
(2) Air Quality Forecast Models	(4) Climate Change

GES DISC Datasets

Quick Search for 'Nitrous oxide' with Mirador
Click on the corresponding 'WHOM access' links in the table below to access products containing specific parameter.

Parameter	Units	Platform /Instrument	Data
			Begin Date	End Date	WHOM Access	Doc
Nitrous Oxide(N2O) Profiles (Ground pixel resolution)	vmr	Aura/MLS	2004-08-08	Current	ML2N2O.002	Y
		Aura/HIRDLS	2004-07-15	Current	HIRDLS2.003	Y
Nitrous Oxide(N2O) Profiles (Global Gridded, at equal intervals of latitude/or equal intervals of time)	vmr	Aura/MLS	2004-08-08	Current		Y
		UARCL3AT	Y
		UARCL3AL	Y
		UARS/ISAMS	1991-09-26	1992-07-29	UARIS3AT	Y
					UARIS3AL	Y

Other sources for data

1. Sciamachy