Climate Research – The Greenhouse Gas Nitrous Oxide in the Environment

The origin and fate of climate-relevant trace gases in our environment are of great scientific and public interest. Alongside carbon dioxide and methane, nitrous oxide is one of the most important anthropogenically influenced greenhouse gases. Since pre-industrial times, its atmospheric concentration has increased by almost 20% and today contributes around 6% to the anthropogenic greenhouse effect. Research on the global sources and sinks of nitrous oxide is urgently needed, as our understanding of its global budget (the sum of all sources and sinks) remains highly uncertain compared to carbon dioxide. This complicates the development of future scenarios and the identification of potential reduction strategies.

To enable future reductions of nitrous oxide emissions, the formation processes of its main sources must be better understood. The acquisition of a newly developed mobile laser measurement device (Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy, CRDS), capable of continuously (“online”) measuring both the concentration and isotopic composition of nitrous oxide in the laboratory and in the field, will significantly strengthen the infrastructure for climate and environmental research at Heidelberg.