The National Science Foundation scanning spectroradiometer at Palmer Station, Antarctica (64¿46'S, 64¿04'W) provides hourly ground-based measurements of solar ultraviolet (UV) irradiance. In addition to defining the UV radiation environment of the region, these measurements allow the derivation of the column density of atmospheric ozone above the station nearly every daylight hour. This hourly time resolution, not generally available from other methods of monitoring Antarctic ozone abundances, enables the detection of large and rapid changes in total column ozone and UV surface irradiance associated with the dynamics of the polar vortex. Column ozone abundance is derived from a ratio of measured irradiance at 300 and 313.5 nanometers (nm) by means of theoretical calculation of this ratio as a function of total ozone amount. Noontime ozone abundances over Palmer Station obtained from this method agree with those obtained by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument aboard Nimbus 7 to within about 10% throughout the austral spring of 1988. Ozone recovery at Palmer Station, associated with the breakup of the polar vortex as indicated by TOMS satellite ozone observations, occurred rapidly within a 24-hour period beginning in midafternoon on November 15. Over the Antarctic Peninsula, the 1989 ozone depletion was slightly greater than in 1988, the minimum noontime ozone abundances over Palmer Station as measured by the spectroradiometer being 194 and 166 Dobson units for October 14, 1988, and October 14, 1989, respectively. The 1989 ozone depletion however ended by November 5 over the Antarctic Peninsula, 10 days earlier than the 1988 event. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1990