The ENVISAT validation programme for the atmospheric instruments MIPAS, SCIAMACHY and GOMOS is based on a number of balloon-bone, aircraft and ground-based correlative measurements. In particular the activities of validation scientists were coordinated by ESA within the ENVISAT Stratospheric Aircraft and Balloon Campaign or ESABC. As a companion to a similar paper on CH4 and in parallel to the contribution of the individual validation teams, the present paper provides a synthesis of comparisons performed between MIPAS N2O profiles produced by the current ESA operational software (Instrument Processing Facility version 4.61 or IPF v4.61) or by the IMK-FZK scientific processor and correlative measurements obtained from balloon and aircraft experiments as well as from ground-based instruments.