Flight at the Edge of the Ozone Layer | One Strange Rock

2m read

·Nov 11, 2024

NARRATOR: 30 years ago, we discovered man-made chemicals had punched a hole in the ozone layer. Is that hole here to stay, waiting around to kill us? Today, we're trying hard to find out. Morgan Sandercock is about to test an experimental plane, perfect for sampling ozone.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Copy that. So I felt pressure rising.

MORGAN SANDERCOCK: (VOICEOVER) We think we can go as high as 90,000 feet.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Jim, you ready to go?

JIM PAYNE: (ON RADIO) We're ready.

MORGAN SANDERCOCK: (VOICEOVER) That's the big boy territory. That's where things can go wrong very, very quickly. If we lose cabin pressure, then, the pilots could very easily pass out. And we don't have any automatic systems to recover from that.

WOMAN: (ON RADIO) Getting ready to roll.

NARRATOR: Now, a glider might sound like a dangerous choice so high up. But gliders don't have engines, which means they can't pollute the team's samples.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Confirm [inaudible] off.

WOMAN: (ON RADIO) [inaudible] is off. Wing wheel is off.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Been running at 11:32.

MAN: (ON RADIO) 11:32. Written down in GPS 5.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Airborne. [music playing]

NARRATOR: The Perlan glider uses air rising over the Southern Andes to reach extraordinary heights.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Airspeed, 70 knots. Looking beautiful.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Yeah?

MAN: (ON RADIO) Really high.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Traffic.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Yeah.

NARRATOR: 52,000 feet up makes this the highest glider flight ever. But you've got to get this high to get a great picture of the ozone layer. The good news is that thanks to a global ban on ozone-harming chemicals, it looks like the hole is healing up. Our shield is regenerating.

Inside a Civil War Most People Have Never Heard of | National Geographic

The 5 Things Successful People Do In Their 20’s

View All

The Banach–Tarski Paradox

Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. There’s a famous way to seemingly create chocolate out of nothing. Maybe you’ve seen it before. This chocolate bar is 4 squares by 8 squares, but if you cut it like this and then like this and finally like this, you can rearrang…

Scarcity of resources

All of economics is based on this notion of scarcity of resources. What does scarcity mean? Well, in an everyday context, it means that there’s not as much of something, say a resource, as people may need, or there’s not an unlimited amount of something. …

What if the World turned to Gold? - The Gold Apocalypse

Here in the KSK Zar Labs, we only work on the most important scientific problems, like what if we nuke stuff, or how about we make this elephant explode, or who could forget, look at this thing, it’s really big! Continuing this proud tradition, let’s expl…

Fish or Shark? | Wicked Tuna | National Geographic

Oh, we made it down to Chatham. Oh, I hope we get a bite. Staying positive. You see, the whales, the tuna are generally with them. We started to hear them. We set up, basically down sea of them. Tons of bait here that they’re feeding on. Hopefully, the tu…

If I Had To Start Over, This is What I Would Do #shorts

Well, what a great place to get a question like that, right in the heart of Beverly Hills. You can’t come here without any money; you’ve got to make money first. And the way you do that, if you had nothing, I would use the advantage of the internet that …

Bill Belichick & Ray Dalio on Bill's Most Important Principles: Part 1

Bill, what are your main principles for success? Do your job, work hard, pay attention to details, and put the team first. I think they are the principles for all organizations. I think, ultimately, improvement should be putting the team first, improving…

Flight at the Edge of the Ozone Layer | One Strange Rock

More Articles