The seasonal cycle of N₂O

Abstract

We have carried out an empirical study of the seasonal cycle of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) using the data archived by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (NOAA‐CMDL) Global Cooperative Air Sampling Network from 1977 to 2000. In order to isolate the seasonal cycle, we first detrended the data using least square polynomial fits. The remaining variability was averaged to extract the seasonal cycle, which has an amplitude of about 0.8 ppbv. The statistical significance of the seasonal signal was established using the multitaper method and Welch's method for power spectrum analysis.