We find NGC 3227 to exhibit significant spectral variability both within and between the observations. The most likely explanation involves short-term variability in the continuum emission and longer-term variability in the column density of the ionized material. Time-resolved spectroscopy and color-color analysis indicate that the slope of the continuum steepened by DeltaGamma approxeq 0.1 during a flare of duration approx 10^4s, within the 1993 observation. However we were unable to distinguish between a steepening of the 'primary' continuum and a change in the relative strengths of the power-law and a putative Compton-reflection component. The absorbing column increased by a factor of approx 10 by the 1995 epoch, while the continuum is consistent with that observed in 1993. The 1995 data also show evidence that the warm absorber allows approx 10% of the nuclear emission to escape without attenuation.
We review our findings in the context of the previous results from this and similar objects and discuss the prospects of future observations.