In December 1986 an aethalometer was installed at the NOAA/GMCC South Pole Observatory to measure concentrations of the combustion effluent tracer species aerosol black carbon (BC) with a time resolution of one hour. We present data covering a 1-yr period from December 1986 through November 1987. The hourly data show infrequent events in which the concentrations increased greatly for periods of a few hours. We attribute these events to local contamination and identified them as such in the database. The remaining background data then yield daily average BC concentrations generally ranging from 50pg m-3 to 5ng m-3, with a minumum in the early austral winter. The results imply long-range transport of this aerosol species, and suggest a minimum value of the order of 10pg m-3 for its global background concentration. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1988