The stratosphere is the second layer of Earth’s atmosphere, stretching as high as 50 kilometers. Although it is a relatively quiet environment, it may be possible to hear faint noises from the troposphere in which we live. However, it is a fact that not all the voices detected come from us.
Scientists were able to monitor the sounds using microbarometers attached to hot air balloons flying thanks to passive solar energy. These instruments can measure small pressure changes. These instruments, originally designed to monitor volcanoes, can now be used to detect sounds that the human ear cannot detect.
The sources of stratospheric sounds can be traced back to natural events such as lightning storms and collisions between ocean waves. Human activities such as wind turbines or explosions can also be detected. Even more interesting is a voice that currently has no explanation.
Mysterious sound with no source
Daniel Bowman, a researcher at Sandia National Laboratories, said that there are mysterious low-frequency sound signals that occur several times an hour on some flights in the stratosphere, but their source is not completely known. In other words, a mysterious sound is heard in the stratosphere and for now no one knows the source of this sound.
The reason this research is interesting is because it discovered something mysterious about the stratosphere, and it was done using a fairly simple setup. Balloons are fairly inexpensive and can travel hundreds of kilometers, landing in hard-to-reach places.
These balloons are actually giant plastic bags that use charcoal dust to turn them black. It is made using plastic tarpaulin, cargo belt and charcoal dust from shops selling pyrotechnic materials. When sunlight hits the black balloons, they begin to rise with the warming of the air inside. Solar energy can lift balloons up to 20 km above the surface. The interesting thing is that these balloons can be built at a cost of around $50 each.
So how important is the study of the stratosphere? Yes, these studies are very important. Here is the ozone layer, which protects life on Earth from the most dangerous ultraviolet rays from the Sun. Humans also affect this part of the atmosphere beyond the ozone layer, and the stratosphere is shrinking due to human-made greenhouse gases. Gas compositions that can absorb infrared rays in the atmosphere can be called greenhouse gases. Especially after the Industrial Revolution, there has been a significant increase in human-induced, that is, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. We know that greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere. Therefore, greenhouse gases increase the temperature in the atmosphere, and with this effect, they cause global warming and therefore climate change.
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