2022年12月17日 VOA慢速英語：美國宇航局將從太空研究世界各地的水

 

A NASA-led international mission launched a radar satellite from southern California early on Friday. The satellite will be involved in a major project to research the world's oceans, lakes and rivers.
周五早些時候，美國宇航局領導的一項國際任務從南加州發(fā)射了一顆雷達衛(wèi)星。這顆衛(wèi)星將參與一項研究世界海洋、湖泊和河流的重大項目。
 
The satellite is called SWOT, short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography. It is designed to give scientists a never-before-seen view of Earth's water, which covers 70 percent of the planet.
這顆衛(wèi)星被稱為 SWOT，是地表水和海洋地形學的縮寫。它旨在為科學家提供前所未有的地球水域視圖，它覆蓋了地球 70% 的面積。
 
About the size of a car, the satellite uses advanced microwave radar technology to collect detailed height and surface measurements of all bodies of water. The data will provide researchers with more information on the effects of climate change.
這顆衛(wèi)星大約有一輛汽車那么大，它使用先進的微波雷達技術來收集所有水體的詳細高度和表面測量數(shù)據(jù)。這些數(shù)據(jù)將為研究人員提供有關氣候變化影響的更多信息。
 
Data will be taken from radar readings of the planet at least two times every 21 days. The information will help study ocean currents, predict the weather, and control freshwater supplies in areas with little rain, researchers said.
數(shù)據(jù)將每 21 天至少兩次從地球的雷達讀數(shù)中獲取。研究人員表示，這些信息將有助于研究洋流、預測天氣以及控制少雨地區(qū)的淡水供應。
 
The satellite took nearly 20 years to develop by NASA along with the French and Canadian space agencies. It was designed and built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles.
這顆衛(wèi)星由 NASA 與法國和加拿大太空合作耗時近 20 年研制而成機構。它是在洛杉磯附近的 NASA 噴氣推進實驗室 (JPL) 設計和建造的。
 
"It's really the first mission to observe nearly all water on the planet's surface," said JPL scientist Ben Hamlington.
JPL 科學家本·哈姆林頓 (Ben Hamlington) 說：“這確實是第一個觀察地球表面幾乎所有水的任務。”
 
One major goal of the mission is to research how oceans absorb atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide - the natural process that moderates temperatures and climate change.
該任務的一個主要目標是研究海洋如何吸收大氣熱量和二氧化碳 -緩和溫度和氣候變化的自然過程。
 
SWOT is designed to measure small differences in surface heights around smaller currents, where much of the oceans' reduction of heat and carbon is believed to happen. And SWOT can do so with 10 times greater detail than existing technologies, JPL says.
SWOT 旨在測量較小洋流周圍表面高度的微小差異，據(jù)信海洋的大部分熱量和碳減少都發(fā)生在這些地方。 JPL 說，SWOT 可以用比現(xiàn)有技術多 10 倍的細節(jié)來做到這一點。
 
Oceans' ‘turning point'
海洋的“轉(zhuǎn)折點”
 
The world's oceans are estimated to have absorbed more than 90 percent of the extra heat trapped in the Earth's atmosphere by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
據(jù)估計，全球海洋吸收了因人為溫室氣體排放而滯留在地球大氣中的額外熱量的 90% 以上。
 
Studying how that happens will help climate scientists answer an important question: "What is the turning point at which oceans start releasing, rather than absorbing, huge amounts of heat back into the atmosphere…?" said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer. She is SWOT's program scientist at NASA in Washington.
研究這種情況是如何發(fā)生的將有助于氣候科學家回答一個重要問題：“海洋開始釋放而不是吸收大量熱量回到大氣中的轉(zhuǎn)折點是什么……？” Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer 說。她是華盛頓 NASA 的 SWOT 項目科學家。
 
The satellite will also be used to study the effect of rising ocean levels. And it will be able to measure all rivers wider than 100 meters, as well as more than 1 million lakes and bodies of water larger than 6.25 hectares.
該衛(wèi)星還將用于研究海平面上升的影響。它將能夠測量所有寬度超過 100 米的河流，以及超過 100 萬個湖泊和面積超過 6.25 公頃的水體。
 
Tamlin Pavelsky is leading SWOT's freshwater research team. He said collecting data on freshwater bodies is like "taking the pulse of the world's water system, so we'll be able to see when it's racing and we'll be able to see when it's slow."
Tamlin Pavelsky 領導著 SWOT 的淡水研究團隊。他說，收集淡水體數(shù)據(jù)就像“把握世界水系統(tǒng)的脈搏，這樣我們就能看到它什么時候加速，什么時候減速。”
 
SWOT's radar instrument can also read through cloud cover and darkness over wide areas of the Earth. This permits scientists to accurately map their observations no matter the weather or time of day and to cover large areas far more quickly than before.
SWOT 的雷達儀器還可以穿透地球廣大地區(qū)的云層和黑暗。這使科學家能夠準確地繪制他們的觀察結(jié)果，無論天氣或一天中的時間如何，并且比以前更快地覆蓋大面積區(qū)域。