Abstract. The absolute rate constant for the reaction that is the major source of stratospheric NO x , O( 1 D)+N 2 O → products, has been determined in the temperature range 227 K to 719 K, and, in the temperature range 248 K to 600 K, the fraction of the reaction that yields O( 3 P). Both the rate constants and product yields were determined using a recently-developed chemiluminescence technique for monitoring O( 1 D) that allows for higher precision determinations for both rate constants, and, particularly, O( 3 P) yields, than do other methods. We found the rate constant, k R1 , to be essentially independent of temperature between 400 K and 227 K, having a value of (1.37±0.11)×10 −10 cm 3 s −1 , and for temperatures greater than 450 K a marked decrease in rate constant was observed, with a rate constant of only (0.94±0.11)×10 −10 cm 3 s −1 at 719 K. The rate constants determined over the 227 K-400 K range show very low scatter and are significantly greater, by 20% at room temperature and 15% at 227 K, than the current recommended values. The fraction of O( 3 P) produced in this reaction was determined to be 0.002±0.002 at 250 K rising steadily to 0.010±0.004 at 600 K, thus the channel producing O( 3 P) can be entirely neglected in atmospheric kinetic modeling calculations. A further result of this study is an expression of the relative quantum yields as a function of temperature for the chemiluminescence reactions (k CL1 )C 2 H + O( 1 D) → CH(A) + CO and (k CL2 )C 2 H + O( 3 P) → CH(A) + CO, both followed by CH(A) → CH(X) + hν, as k CL1 (T )/k CL2 (T )=(32.8T −3050)/(6.29T +398).