yego.me
yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

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.

Diane Greene's Advice for Founders
Cool Things on YouTube and More! DONG #19

More Articles

View All
Free energy and equilibrium | Applications of thermodynamics | AP Chemistry | Khan Academy
Let’s say we have a generic reaction where reactants turn into products, and our goal is to think about the relationship between free energy and this reaction when it comes to equilibrium. First, we need to consider the equation that allows us to calculat…
Second derivatives (vector-valued functions) | Advanced derivatives | AP Calculus BC | Khan Academy
So I have a vector valued function H here. When I say vector valued, it means you give me a T; it’s a function of T. So you give me a T, I’m not just going to give you a number; I’m going to give you a vector. As we’ll see, you’re going to get a two-dimen…
Who God is in Different Cultures | The Story of God
Who God is, is almost universally a great unknown. There are different manifestations of God: different statues, different icons, different sounds, smells, looks of God across cultures. God has a sound. To Navajo, God is a light, bright light to many peop…
Chicken Powered Steadicam - Smarter Every Day
Hey, it’s me, Destin. You remember I made the chicken head tracking video? The reason the chicken’s head stays stable is something called the vestibulo-ocular reflex. One thing that kept popping up is people always had the suggestion of making a camera st…
Do We Have Free Will? | Robert Sapolsky & Andrew Huberman
Speaker A: - Along the lines of choice, I’d like to shift gears slightly and talk about free will, about our ability to make choices at all. Speaker B: - Well, my personal way out in left field inflammatory stance is I don’t think we have a shred of free…
See How NASA Helped An Artist Create Stunning Drawings of Glaciers | Short Film Showcase
[Music] I wear any brand. I wear glasses like wear nostril filters or not breathing. I mean, not when there’s a camera on me. [Music] I’m an artist. I draw large-scale landscape drawings that document Earth’s changing climate. I’m so moved personally by t…