The atmosphere is constantly changing. Its composition has varied regularly over the course of the planet’s climatic epochs, particularly with regard to its levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, a crucial factor in determining Earth’s climate.
Analysis of air bubbles trapped in ice cores has made it possible to reconstruct these variations in composition over the last 500,000 years. This is shown by our study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, which shows recent “jumps” in CO2 that correspond to increases of around 10 parts per million (ppm) in less than a century in atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
