Climate Researchers Plan Glider Mission to Edge of Space

Not a lot is known about the weather at 90,000 feet above the earth’s surface, so a team of scientists and aviators are going to fly there using an engineless aircraft to learn more about what the weather at such extreme altitudes has to say about climate change.

It’s called the Perlan Project, and the glider the team will use — the Perlan Mission II glider — will attempt its first flight on Wednesday in Oregon, the first of many test flights before the aircraft rides a column of air rising off the Andes Mountains to 90,000 feet over South America sometime in 2016.

The glider, technically a sailplane, will be the first manned glider in history to maintain level flight at such heights, and it will do so without polluting the air around it with engines, according to commercial airplane manufacturer Airbus Group, the mission’s chief sponsor.

Flying to the edge of space will give scientists a chance to study how different layers of the atmosphere interact at extreme altitudes, possibly the prelude to higher-altitude commercial flight, Airbus spokesman James Darcy said.

Climate science will also be a major aspect of the mission, he said.

“Currently climate change models are based on a theoretical understanding of how different layers of the atmosphere interact with each other,” Darcy said.  “Models are perhaps more simple than they should be.  The scientific aim of Perlan will be to better understand the weather in the upper reaches of the atmosphere and build a more accurate model of what’s happening.  That will drive more accurate predictability with respect to climate change.”

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