Data from the BUV instrument on the Nimbus 4 satellite have been used to construct maps of the measured total ozone field over the Antarctic region during the Austral springs of 1970 through 1973. These maps show an October mean ozone distribution similar to that measured in 1979 by the Nimbus 7 TOMS instrument. These ozone maps during the 1970s are very different from those measured during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The ozone distribution for each of the years during the early 1970s is characterized by a circumpolar, crescent-shaped maximum surrounding a shallow minimum centered near the pole. The total ozone amounts in the polar minimum region in the early 1970s average about 300 Dobson units, comparable to the amounts measured at that time over Halley Bay and Syowa by ground-based Dobson Spectrophotometers.¿ 1997 American Geophysical Union