VIAJE AL AGUJERO DE OZONO TECNOLOGIA DISPARATADA

BEND, Ore. — It might be the weirdest part of the atmosphere, 15 miles above the polar regions, where vast stratospheric clouds of nitric acid and water vapor shimmer in iridescent pink while human-made chemicals play havoc with the ozone layer.
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 How to get there?
In a glider.
Without the weight of engines or fuel, a glider can be lifted by natural atmospheric phenomena, engineers say. So a team of scientists, aviation buffs and entrepreneurs is building a two-seat sailplanedesigned to withstand the peculiar hazards of stratospheric flight. The journey is scheduled for August 2015.
The glider will be shipped by freighter to El Calafate, Argentina, where winds from the Pacific Ocean are deflected by the Andes Mountains to create a standing wave, like the waves of water that form over rocks in a mountain stream, with updrafts of 30 feet per second.
“These mountain waves get so steep and energetic, they turn into white water,” said Edward J. Warnock, an aerospace engineer who is chief executive of the Perlan Project, the nonprofit organization that is building the glider, Perlan II.
A single-engine plane, probably a crop duster, will tow the glider to meet these waves, at about 10,000 feet. Where the waves weaken, at about 60,000 feet, the glider is supposed to intercept another phenomenon, the polar vortex — circulating winds that act like a giant cyclone during the austral winter, delivering a strong uplift. If it can catch that current, the glider will soar still higher, into the Perlan Clouds, and higher, into the ozone hole, where the chemical reactions that disrupt the ozone layer take place. (Perlan is the Icelandic word for “pearl,” describing the clouds’ sunlit glow.)
The aim is to go to 90,000 feet, or 17 miles up, and set a new altitude record for a glider. The plane’s predecessor, Perlan I, set the record of 50,726 feet on Aug. 30, 2006.

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