Spectral scan data from the solar backscattered ultraviolet (SBUV) instrument on Nimbus 7 for the wavelength range 200--400 nm have been analyzed to determine the strengths of several of the nitric oxide (NO) gamma band fluorescence features as a function of time and of latitude. The integrated column amount of nitric oxide above an altitude of approximately 45--50 km is inferred from analysis of the strengths of the (10), (01), and (02) nitric oxide gamma bands. Analysis shows that there are about 5--6¿1014 molecules cm-2 of nitric oxide cumulative above 48 km over a wide range of latitudes, increasing sharply near the winter terminator by about a factor of 3 to 12--15¿1014 molecules cm-2. Between 1979 and 1986, column NO near the equator decreased by about a factor of 2, from 6.4¿1014 molecules cm-2 to 3.3¿1014 molecules cm-2. The time dependence of the decrease correlates well with solar activity, following the decline in solar activity from solar maximum in 1979 to solar minimum in 1985--1986. At middle and high latitudes, NO appears to have reached a maximum in 1982--1983, a few years after the solar cycle maximum, and has decreased since, but the magnitude of the trend is smaller. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1989