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Abstract. Air in polar ice cores provides unique information on past climatic and atmospheric changes. We developed a new method combining wet extraction, gaschromatography and mass spectrometry for high-precision, simultaneous measurements of eight air components (CH4, N2O andCO2 concentrations; δ15N, δ18O, δO2∕N2 and δAr∕N2; and total aircontent) from an ice-core sample of ∼ 60 g. The ice sample is evacuated for ∼ 2 h and melted under vacuum, and thereleased air is continuously transferred into a sample tube at 10 K within 10 min. The air is homogenized in the sample tubeovernight at room temperature and split into two aliquots for mass spectrometric and gas chromatographic measurements. Care is taken to minimize(1) contamination of greenhouse gases by using a long evacuation time, (2) consumption of oxygen during sample storage by a passivation treatment onsample tubes, and (3) fractionation of isotopic ratios with a long homogenization time for splitting. Precision is assessed by analyzing standardgases with artificial ice and duplicate measurements of the Dome Fuji and NEEM ice cores. The overall reproducibility (1 SD) of duplicate ice-coreanalyses are 3.2 ppb, 2.2 ppb and 2.9 ppm for CH4, N2O and CO2 concentrations;0.006 ‰, 0.011 ‰, 0.09 ‰ and 0.12 ‰ for δ15N, δ18O, δO2∕N2and δAr∕N2; and 0.63 mLSTP kg−1 for total air content, respectively. Our new method successfully combines thehigh-precision, small-sample and multiple-species measurements, with a wide range of applications for ice-core paleoenvironmental studies.

Abstract. Air in polar ice cores provides unique information on past climatic and atmospheric changes. We developed a new method combining wet extraction, gaschromatography and mass spectrometry for high-precision, simultaneous measurements of eight air components (CH4, N2O andCO2 concentrations; δ15N, δ18O, δO2∕N2 and δAr∕N2; and total aircontent) from an ice-core sample of ∼ 60 g. The ice sample is evacuated for ∼ 2 h and melted under vacuum, and thereleased air is continuously transferred into a sample tube at 10 K within 10 min. The air is homogenized in the sample tubeovernight at room temperature and split into two aliquots for mass spectrometric and gas chromatographic measurements. Care is taken to minimize(1) contamination of greenhouse gases by using a long evacuation time, (2) consumption of oxygen during sample storage by a passivation treatment onsample tubes, and (3) fractionation of isotopic ratios with a long homogenization time for splitting. Precision is assessed by analyzing standardgases with artificial ice and duplicate measurements of the Dome Fuji and NEEM ice cores. The overall reproducibility (1 SD) of duplicate ice-coreanalyses are 3.2 ppb, 2.2 ppb and 2.9 ppm for CH4, N2O and CO2 concentrations;0.006 ‰, 0.011 ‰, 0.09 ‰ and 0.12 ‰ for δ15N, δ18O, δO2∕N2and δAr∕N2; and 0.63 mLSTP kg−1 for total air content, respectively. Our new method successfully combines thehigh-precision, small-sample and multiple-species measurements, with a wide range of applications for ice-core paleoenvironmental studies.