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
Making $1000 Per Day as a Master Sushi Chef | Undercover Millionaire
What’s up you guys, it’s Graham here. So have you ever wondered how a private chef is able to charge all the way up to $8,000 a night? Well today, I have you covered because I’m trying one of the most unbelievable side hustles that I have ever seen: learn…
The Napkin Ring Problem
Hey, Vsauce! Michael here! If you core a sphere; that is, remove a cylinder from it, you’ll be left with a shape called a Napkin ring because, well, it looks like a napkin ring! It’s a bizarre shape because if two Napkin rings have the same height, well t…
Fire in ZERO-G!!
I’m about to experience weightlessness for the first time. Oh my god! Oh my god that is so strange. Oh my god this is totally freaky; this is way better than I expected. I’m just gonna say that right now. Um I’m going up to the ceiling, and here we are. I…
HOW TO PROFIT CHURNING BANK ACCOUNTS IN 2019
What’s up guys? It’s Graham here. So really quick, I want you to ask yourself these three very important questions. Number one: Do you want to make an easy 500 bucks? Number two: Do you have some free time on your hands that you can kill? And number th…
Speaking the Language | Saints & Strangers
You’ll want them in my saucer. II Hello, catch! Working with the Aventa key language is a huge opportunity. It’s something that I welcomed with open arms. It was something that I felt was a responsibility as a native actor. And I can’t come to me! I ha…
End behavior of rational functions | Mathematics III | High School Math | Khan Academy
So we’re given this function ( f(x) ) and it equals this rational expression over here. We’re asked what does ( f(x) ) approach as ( x ) approaches negative infinity? So as ( x ) becomes more and more and more and more negative, what does ( f(x) ) approac…