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.

More Articles

View All
TIL: How to Play Matchmaker for Beautiful, Endangered Birds | Today I Learned
[Music] Make fun, cringe! I’m monogamous. When a cup of cranes is together, they are likely to stay together for the rest of their lives. But unfortunately, in my country, Wanda, most of the cranes are hunted and sold to people. They won’t have the mini …
Review of revenue and cost graphs for a monopoly | Microeconomics | Khan Academy
What I want to do in this video is review a little bit of what we’ve learned about monopolies and in the process get a better understanding for some of the graphical representations which we have talked about in the past. But I want to put it all togethe…
Andy Bromberg - Startup Investor School Day 4
There was one note that someone had that I thought was a little interesting. He pointed out that, Karl, thank you, that we haven’t really talked about taxes. I can’t imagine why we haven’t talked about taxes. Well, taxes are an interesting issue when you…
Into the Forests | Branching Out | Part 1
April is Earth month, a time to celebrate our natural world. It’s also a call to reflect on our impact and think of new ways that we can protect and restore the planet. I’m Ginger Z, chief meteorologist at ABC News. My family and I are hitting the road t…
LearnStorm Growth Mindset: Khan Academy's economics content creator on learning strategies
My name is Melanie Fox. I create the AP Macroeconomics and AP Microeconomics content for Khan Academy. Well, if you don’t develop that mindset and you say, “I can’t overcome this,” this barrier, you’ve just made that barrier permanent for yourself. For …
How To Retire by 30 Years Old | Starting with $0
What’s up you guys, it’s Graham here! So, the other week I posted a video about how much money you should save by every age, and in that video, I go in detail about how much money you should be putting away every single year in order to make sure you’re o…