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Introduction

Since 1978, data publicly available from NASA show that during the summer of each year a decrease in the total ozone column appears over the West coast of South America, extending from Ecuador to approximately 33ºS latitude in Chile. This depletion takes the form of a strip located between the Andes mountain range and the Pacific coast. At these latitudes, ozone concentration averages on the order of 270 DU, but when the aforementioned depletion occurs this figure can fall as low as 230 DU. The process by which the depletion arises indicates that the strip may begin in Ecuador and stretch southward down the Pacific coast, passing along the western edge of Peru and arriving as far as 33ºS in Chile. [1]