In 2005, Hurricane Katrina became one of the deadliest storms in recent US history.More than one thousand people died and the storm surge devastated gulf coast communities. One of the factors that contributed to the destruction, rising sea levels.
2005年,卡特裡娜颶風成為美國近代歷史上最致命的風暴之一。此次風暴造成一千多人死亡,並摧毀了海灣沿岸社區。造成破壞的因素之一是海平面上升。
「The rising ocean winds up causing problems when it comes on top of things like storm surges, high tides, and rare events which bring very high sea levels.」
上升的海洋遇到風浪、高潮以及其他導致高海平面的罕見事件,就會造成問題。
A series of satellites launched over the last two decades collect data that gives scientists a global view of sea levels.The latest satellite launched is called Jason-3. Several thousands of times a second, Jason pulses radar off the ocean surface.
在過去的二十年中被發射的一系列衛星,收集數據,為科學家提供了關於海平面的全球視圖。最新發射的衛星叫做Jason-3。Jason脈衝雷達可在一秒之內掃過海洋表面幾千次。
「Our satellite records of course only go back about 25 years. But we have measurements of how the oceans have been changing that go back thousands of years and in fact the past 2000 years have been very stable in terms of sea level and climate change. It’s only in the last hundred or so years that rapid sea level rise has begun, driven by the warming of the planet.」
「我們的人造衛星記錄當然只能回溯到25年前。但是我們有辦法測量海洋在過去的幾千年間是如何變化的。實際上,過去的兩千年間,在海平面和氣候變化方面是很穩定的。而僅是在過去一百年左右的時間裡,在全球變暖的影響下,海平面開始迅速上升。」
Any material, when heated, will expand. That includes sea water. With the Jason-3 satellite measures the height of the sea surface, scientists can calculate how much extra heat is stored in the ocean.They conclude more than 90 percent of the planet heat trapped by greenhouse gases ends up in the ocean.
任何材料,受熱時,都會膨脹。包括海水。通過Jason-3測量海面高度,科學家可以計算海洋中儲存了多少多餘的熱量。他們推斷,地球溫室氣體中,有超過百分之九十的熱量最後被海洋吸收。
「So we are entering a very unique time that greenhouse gas is increasing at an unprecedented pace, you know, 50 percent increase in less than 150 years. So that’s just a fact. So a lot of warming happening in a very short time and sea level rising at a pace (that is) very rapid.」
「所以我們進入了一個很獨特的時期,溫室氣體以前所未有的速度增加,你知道,過去不到一百五十年間增長了百分之五十。這僅是一個觀察到的情況。所以,在非常短的時間內,大量溫室氣體產生,海平面升高速度也非常快。」
As scientist say, the data collected from Jason-3 satellite will help them watch the global impacts of rising sea levels and also help meteorologists better forecast the intensity of future storms just as they had for Hurricane Katrina.
正如科學家所說,Jason-3衛星所收集的數據可以幫助他們監控海平面上升造成的全球影響,也可以幫助氣象學家更好地預測未來風暴的強度,就像他們在卡特裡娜風暴時做的一樣。
「When Hurricane Katrina was passing over we could see the spot of warm water using the Jason data that caused the hurricane to intensify from a category three to a category five hurricane.」
「當卡特裡娜風暴經過時,我們可以利用Jason的數據,看到導致颶風從3級增強至5級的暖水區的地點。」
Once the Jason -3 Satellite retires in three to five years, scientists plan to launch another satellite to continue building a continuous record of the earth’s rising sea levels.
一旦Jason-3衛星在三到五年後退役,科學家計劃發射另外一顆衛星,以繼續收集地球海平面上升的持續性記錄。