Considering the way we've been treating our planet, testing air quality is crucial. That doesn't mean just testing for pollutants, but also the basic components of the atmosphere that can change over time. At Kennaook/Cape Grim in Australia, the cleanest air in the world blows in from the Southern Ocean. The Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station is constantly testing this air, but they also keep samples in the Cape Grim Air Archive. Every few months a new tank is added to the collection. Sure, we have air testing results for the last 50 years, but what if, sometime in the future, we need to test for something we never tested before? The archive means this historic air will be available for new tests. Tom Scott gives us a look at the archives and explains how these samples are bottled, stored, and used.
Tom also added a link at the video page to give us some background on Cape Grim, particularly the massacre of 1828. It is indeed grim.