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.

Inside NELK’s $250,000,000 Empire (The Full Story)
15 RULES of BEING ALONE

More Articles

View All
Conservation of momentum | Physics | Khan Academy
When we shoot a cannon, not only does the ball go forward, but the cannon itself goes backward. This means when we shot it, the ball gained a forward momentum, and the cannon itself also gained a backward momentum. The big question is: if we know what the…
Cellular evidence of common ancestry | High school biology | Khan Academy
Perhaps the most mind-blowing idea in all of biology is the concept that all living things we know of, based on current evidence that we have, all originated from a common ancestor. So it doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about a simple bacterial cell,…
My Real Estate Prediction for 2019...
What’s up you guys? It’s Graham here. So I hope you’re sitting down, because we’re gonna be having a very serious talk today about what’s happening in the real estate market; some of the things that you should be watching out for and what I think is gonna…
How to Build a Blind | Live Free or Die: DIY
[Music] When I talk to people about seeing all kinds of wildlife, they’re always amazed. They say they go into a forest, or a park, or a wooded area to take pictures of wildlife or birds, and they don’t see anything. So come along and I’ll show you how t…
Climbing Asia’s Forgotten Mountain, Part 1 | Nat Geo Live
It was harder than we anticipated and it was much, much colder. We’re a team of six people. Our goal is to determine what the highest peak in Burma is and then climb it. Like to solve this fantastic geographical mystery. It never let up, just taken down t…
How To Get Rich According To Richard Branson
There are a million ways to make a million dollars, and in this video, we’re looking at how the rebel billionaire himself, Richard Branson, did it. When he left high school, his headmaster told him, “You’re either going to become a billionaire or end up i…