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Introduction

Geographic variability of vertical Volume Mixing Ratio (VMR) profiles of various compounds involved in stratospheric ozone chemistry are derived from data acquired by the SAFIRE/A (Spectroscopy of the Atmosphere by using Far Infrared Emission/ Airborne) spectrometer. During the APE-GAIA Antarctic campaign (Airborne Polar Experiment - Geophysica Aircraft In Antarctica), performed from Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) between 16^th September and 15^th October 1999, the SAFIRE/A instrument measured the concentration of ozone, other chemical species involved in the ozone chemistry, as HNO₃ and ClO and tracers as N₂O. Five scientific flights have been performed crossing the Antarctic polar vortex boundary. The volume mixing ratio profiles, acquired in a region extending from 57 to 68 degrees of latitude south, cover the lower stratosphere (10-20 km) with a vertical resolution of about 1.5 km and an horizontal resolution of 60 km. Chemical processes involving ozone inside the polar vortex are evidenced in the presented data by correlation of the geographic and vertical variability shown in the VMR maps of Ozone and chemically active species like HNO₃ and ClO.