Latest crucial data and insights on N2O nitrous oxide emissions, human (anthropogenic) emissions, increase, atmospheric levels, breakdowns and more.

Dashboard to Track Earth's N2O Nitrous Oxide Levels and Emissions

Human N2O emissions are one of the main drivers of the atmospheric N2O increase leading to Climate Change.

N2O Nitrous Oxide

What is the Yearly Atmospheric N2O Increase?

This is the difference in the atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O) of a given year compared to the previous year. We call this an ‘increase’ because in recent history, most years have had more nitrous oxide in the atmosphere than the previous year; in the case of a negative value, this means there was a decrease.

Nitrous oxide has a large warming effect, with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) that is 273 times greater than CO2. Like CO2, but unlike methane, it stays in the atmosphere for a long time, on average 116 years. Besides its warming potential, nitrous oxide is also important because it depletes the ozone layer, which protects us from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

The yearly nitrous oxide increase depends on the processes that emit nitrous oxide into the atmosphere and on the nitrous oxide sinks, which mostly comprise photochemical atmospheric breakdown in the stratosphere.

Wikipedia: Nitrous oxide Atmospheric occurrence

IPCC: AR6, Full Report, Section 5.2.3.1 Atmosphere

The primary unit here is parts per billion (ppb), which describes the increase in the concentration of atmospheric nitrous oxide per year. The secondary unit here is a teragram, which describes the weight of the increase of atmospheric nitrous oxide per year. We show this to be able to relate to emissions, which are commonly expressed in teragrams.

In recent decades there has been a consistent increase in atmospheric nitrous oxide driven by human emissions. There are three time periods with significant differences in the magnitude of fluctuations. These differences are due to the underlying sources and are explained in the next section.

IPCC: AR6, Full Report, Section 5.2.3 N2O: Trends, Variability and Budget

The data is from several sources linked to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). National Centers for Environmental Information has data from ice core studies, whereby we average the extrapolated yearly increases of the individual studies. This is used for the time period prior to 1978 and highlights the long-term trend, but it does not show the actual yearly fluctuations.

The Global Monitoring Laboratory provides the annual nitrous oxide mole fraction increase (ppb) from Jan 1 through Dec 31. For the current year, we compare the available months to those a year earlier. Since 1978, N2O measurement programs have increased the number of measurements, but there were high fluctuations in global N2O levels due to uncertainty from measurement equipment, which improved over time. Since the late 1990s, a globally distributed network of air sampling sites has greatly increased confidence in the measurements.

NOAA GML: Trends in Atmospheric Nitrous Oxide

Globally averaged marine surface annual mean growth rates

Globally averaged marine surface monthly mean data

Law Dome Ice Core 2000-Year CO2, CH4, and N2O Data

Charts, definition, insights, explanation and latest, most recent data of earth&apos;s yearly atmospheric N2O nitrous oxide levels increase

Earth's Yearly Atmospheric N2O Nitrous Oxide Levels Increase

Yearly Atmospheric N2O Increase

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What is the Yearly Average Atmospheric N2O?

This is the average amount of nitrous oxide (N2O) that is in the atmosphere in a given year. The yearly average highlights the long-term trends and hides the seasonal variation.

The primary unit here is parts per billion (ppb), which describes the average concentration of atmospheric methane per year. The secondary unit here is teragrams, which describes the average weight of atmospheric nitrous oxide per year. We show this to be able to relate to emissions, which are commonly expressed in teragrams.

There has been a consistent rise in atmospheric nitrous oxide in the last 50 years, from just under 300 ppb to 335 ppb in 2022. The largest driver of this rise is the human emissions from agricultural processes and fossil fuel burning. To realize how high these concentrations are compared to pre-industrial values, we compare them to long-term historical concentrations from ice core studies.

When we look at the last 1,000 years, we can clearly see that the nitrous oxide concentration started rising at the end of the 18th century, coinciding with the industrial revolution.

The 10,000 years before the industrial revolution had steady atmospheric nitrous oxide levels. The last glacial period, roughly 100,000 to 12,000 ago, had much more drastic variations. It was also a drastic period! Ice sheets reached the northern parts of the US, the UK, Germany and Northeast Siberia. There were sea-level changes up to 120 meters.

The last 800,000 years offer some perspective on the nitrous oxide levels during the recurring glacial periods and the unusually high nitrous oxide level of our time. The current level of over 335 ppb was unheard of in the past, which saw values between 200 ppb and 300 ppb.

Wikipedia: Methane in Earth&apos;s Atmosphere

The data is from two subgroups of NOAA, the Global Monitoring Laboratory for recent data and the National Centers for Environmental Information for paleoclimatology data.

The Global Monitoring Laboratory provides annual and monthly atmospheric nitrous oxide averages. We use the monthly trend data to calculate the average for the current year.

The National Centers for Environmental Information provides atmospheric nitrous oxide levels from several ice core studies.

EPICA Dronning Maud Land, EPICA Dome C - 140KYr N2O Data, 800KYr N2O Data

Charts, definition, insights, explanation and latest, most recent data of earth&apos;s yearly average atmospheric N2O nitrous oxide levels

Earth's Yearly Average Atmospheric N2O Nitrous Oxide Levels

Yearly Average Atmospheric N2O

What is the Monthly Average Atmospheric N2O?

This is the average amount of nitrous oxide (N2O) that is in the atmosphere in a given month. The monthly average highlights the seasonal variation. The graph shows the last 3 years to highlight the seasonal variation.

The primary unit here is parts per billion (ppb), which describes the average concentration of atmospheric methane per year. The secondary unit here is teragrams, which describes the average weight of atmospheric methane per year. We show this to be able to relate to emissions, which are commonly expressed in teragrams.

There is a light global seasonal cycle, with higher growth rates between October and March and less growth between April and September. Seasonal variation occurs both in the natural surface emissions and in the natural breakdown in the stratosphere.

caltech.edu: Seasonal cycle of N2O: Analysis of data

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Global Monitoring Laboratory provides monthly atmospheric nitrous oxide data.

Charts, definition, insights, explanation and latest, most recent data of earth's monthly average atmospheric N2O nitrous oxide levels

Earth's Monthly Average Atmospheric N2O Nitrous Oxide Levels

Monthly Average Atmospheric N2O

What are the Human Yearly N2O Emissions?

These are the total yearly nitrous oxide (N2O) emitted through human activities expressed as weight in teragrams. In the scientific literature, this is referred to as anthropogenic N2O emissions. Examples of human emissions include the agricultural use of synthetic fertilizer and manure and fossil fuel emissions as well as other sources, which you find in the next breakdown chart.

Human emissions are the main driver of the increasing atmospheric nitrous oxide that is warming our planet.

Wikipedia: Nitrous_oxide Emissions_by_source

Nature.com: A comprehensive quantification of global nitrous oxide sources and sinks, Tian, H. et al.

The unit teragram describes the average weight of atmospheric nitrous oxide per year.

Since 1980, yearly human nitrous oxide emissions have increased significantly from about 5 to 8 teragrams per year. IPCC scientific sources do not have information on human emissions before 1980.

There are also natural processes that together emit roughly 10 teragrams of nitrous oxide per year. There is only one significant process that eliminates nitrous oxide, removing roughly 13.5 teragrams from the atmosphere per year: a chemical breakdown process happening in the stratosphere (the second layer of the atmosphere). Overall, natural processes remove approximately 3.5 teragrams per year. This means that human emissions above 3.5 teragrams result in an atmospheric increase, which you can see in the Yearly Atmospheric N2O Increase chart.

There is a very long delay in the data. This is because this data is produced periodically by a global research project where scientists contribute to a mutually agreed knowledge base. It takes a lot of time and effort to generate trustworthy data that we can be confident in.

Breakdown of Human Yearly N2O Emissions chart

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2780-0

IPCC: AR6 Full Report, 5.2.3.2 Anthropogenic N2O emissions

Global Carbon Project: Global Carbon Budget 2022

The Global Carbon Project has a Global Nitrous Oxide Budget besides its Global Carbon Budget. It uses inventories, models, atmospheric inversions and more to build up the inventory.

Charts, definition, insights, explanation and latest, most recent data of human (anthropogenic) yearly N2O nitrous oxide emissions

Human (Anthropogenic) Yearly N2O Nitrous Oxide Emissions

Human Yearly N2O Emissions

What is the Breakdown of Human Yearly N2O Emissions?

This is a breakdown by source of yearly nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from human activities and processes, expressed as weight in teragrams. The sources of human nitrous oxide emissions are

The synthetic fertilizer used for agricultural processes contains a lot of nitrogen. The nitrogen in the soil causes a lot of direct N2O emissions, at 2.5 teragrams per year or around 30% of total human emissions. Excess fertilizer causes even higher relative emissions. There are many technical solutions to reduce emissions while keeping, or even increasing, agricultural yields. Many such solutions focus on providing the right amount of fertilizer at the right time.

We have included aquaculture emissions, which comprise 0.1 teragrams, to fertilizer emissions. A large part of aquaculture emissions comes from the fertilizers used to make aquaculture feed.

When manure is left on the field or managed in dry processes, it emits considerable amounts of nitrous oxide, at 1.5 teragrams or almost 20% of total human emissions. Manure can be managed by wet processes, which reduces the nitrous oxide emissions but increases methane emissions. Some technical solutions focus on modifying the animal feed to reduce nitrogen in the manure, thereby reducing nitrous oxide emissions.

The combustion of fossil fuels in, for example, power plants, cars and airplanes is a well-known cause of CO2 emissions, but it also emits nitrous oxide (N2O). Any advances to reducing fossil fuel dependency will thus also reduce nitrous oxide emissions.

The largest part of industrial emissions happen in the production of fertilizer, nylon and similar products. Technologies are available to reduce emissions in these processes.

Burning biomass like crops, grasses and trees releases nitrous oxide. Biomass is burned, for example, for heating, cooking and clearing fields. Also, forest fires – whether naturally or intentionally lit – emit nitrous oxide. Emissions from biomass burned naturally are included in the yearly human emissions because of the difficulty in separating the numbers.

The roughly 0.3 teragrams of nitrous oxide emissions from waste come from, for example, wastewater treatment and landfill.

There are a lot of indirect sources of nitrous oxide emissions. The largest part, at roughly 1.4 teragrams per year, comes from indirect nitrogen deposition from agricultural practices and fossil fuel combustion. Deforestation, the rising CO2 levels and the changing climate each have multiple processes that increase and reduce nitrous oxide emissions, with an average net effect of around 0.2 teragrams per year, but with relatively high yearly fluctuations that are visible in the chart.

www.nature.com: A comprehensive quantification of global nitrous oxide sources and sinks, Tian, H. et al.

IPCC: AR6, 5.2.3 N2O Trends, Variability and Budget

The two agricultural sources, fertilizer and manure, have the largest emissions, and those from fertilizers are growing the fastest due to their increasing usage worldwide. Fossil fuel and industry emissions have remained rather stable due to technical solutions for emissions reduction. The largest part of the indirect emissions are also from agricultural processes and fossil fuel combustion. Large fluctuations of indirect emissions come mostly from climatic responses that, over the years, have a low net effect. Biomass and waste are still significant sources, together accounting for more than 10% of total emissions.

There is a very long delay in the data. This is because  this data is produced periodically by a global research project where scientists contribute to a mutually agreed knowledge base. It takes a lot of time and effort to generate trustworthy data that we can be confident in.

Global Carbon Project: Nitrous Oxide Budget

Charts, definition, insights, explanation, latest data and breakdown of human yearly N2O nitrous oxide emissions

N₂O Nitrous Oxide

Yearly Atmospheric N₂O Increase

Yearly Average Atmospheric N₂O

Monthly Average Atmospheric N₂O

Human Yearly N₂O Emissions

Breakdown of Human Yearly N₂O Emissions