A pilot study for predicting ozone amounts for the general public in southern Chile

During 1994/95 a UK Overseas Development Administration (now, Department fo r International Development - DFID) funded project was undertaken to predic t ozone amount over Punta Arenas in southern Chile. A low-cost satellite re ceiver was installed to receive the digital data stream from the NOAA serie s of weather satellites. The ozone channel of the TIROS Operational Vertica l Sounder instrument on the NOAA satellites was used to obtain maps of stra tospheric ozone for the area around Punta Arenas in near real time. Also, a simple model was developed to predict the amount of column ozone from the forecast 100 hPa temperatures obtained from the UK Meteorological Office. T hese techniques used together made it possible to issue timely warnings to the general public of Punta Arenas before the Antarctic ozone hole moved ac ross southern South America during the Austral spring.