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.

Navy SEAL Astronauts - Smarter Every Day 243

The Simple Solution to Traffic

View All

Shark Tank Season 15 Watches

One of a Kind Ruby circled Steel, the only one in the world with a red band made specifically for Mr. Wonderful. [Music] Hey everybody, Mr. Wonderful here! I’m a few minutes late. I said I’d go live at five o’clock because we’re going to have some fun thi…

Inside the Epic World of Bertie Gregory | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic

We’ve got something new this week! Our colleague and National Geographic Channel’s executive producer, Drew Jones, is going to take us behind the scenes of Epic Adventures with Bertie Gregory. I’ll let him and Bertie take it from here. You ready? I’m Bets…

Sal's back to school 2021 message

Hi everyone, Sal Khan here from Khan Academy. We’re entering into yet another back to school, but this is a back to school that’s very unusual compared to all others. We hope that we’re finally going to get to some level of normalcy as we see the light a…

Calculating change in spending or taxes to close output gaps | AP Macroeconomics | Khan Academy

So we have two different economies depicted here. On the left, we have an economy where its short-run equilibrium output is above its full employment output, and so it has a positive output gap. It might seem like a good thing that your economy is just do…

Limits of composite functions | Limits and continuity | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy

Let’s now take some limits involving composite functions. So over here we have the limit of G of H of x as x approaches three. And like always, I encourage you to pause the video and see if you can figure this out on your own. Well, we can leverage our l…

Everyone Is Wrong About Bitcoin: “Have Fun Staying Poor!”

That’s going to zero. That’s going to zero. This is going to zero too. Euros are going to zero. The Yen’s going to zero. The Chinese currency is going to zero. It’s all going to zero against Bitcoin. It’s worthless artificial gold. I would short it if the…

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

More Articles