人類對于北極光的猜測與人們對于自然的恐懼心理...
Will the Earth's Wandering Magnetic Poles Cause Deadly Superstorms?
By Jeremy A. Kaplan
移動的地球磁極會引發(fā)致命的超級風暴嗎？
Jeremy A. Kaplan 撰寫
Published February 12, 2011 FoxNews.com
發(fā)布于02-12-2011 FoxNews.com
Will the wandering magnetic North Pole create crazy superstorms?
地磁北極會發(fā)生令人難以置信的超級風暴嗎？
The eye-popping connection between the planet's weather and its magnetic field has caught hold among scaremongers recently, ever since scientists described the potential of devastating "superstorms" -- storms caused, scientists say, by flowing gushers of water in the sky known as atmospheric rivers. Some worriers say that these tubocharged tsunamis will soon be widespread, thanks to the increased movement of the Earth's magnetic field.
自從科學家們指出了毀滅性“超級風暴”的可能性之后，全球氣候與地球磁極之間本已引人注目的聯(lián)系最近抓住了散布謠言人士的眼球。科學家們稱， “超級風暴”的起因來自于大氣流，即，天空中流動的水噴。 一些焦慮者聲稱這些管狀的的海嘯會快速蔓延開，多虧了地球磁場的加速移動才避免如此。
And that when the field shifts, the story goes, anything can happen. All hell will break loose, they say, arguing that the shift has a greater effect on the world's weather than even the carbon-based influences scientists have been carefully monitoring.
當磁場移動時，一切就開始了，任何事情都有可能發(fā)生。 他們聲稱所有糟糕的情況都會發(fā)生，他們辯證的理由是地球磁場的移動對全球氣候的影響要遠大于科學家們一直檢測的二氧化碳的影響。
Poppycock, say the best scientific minds in the Northern Hemisphere.
北半球著名的科學家們稱，這些全部都是胡說。
"Trying to link all of these things together is kind of preposterous," said Dr. Carol Raymond, principal scientist and a geophysicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, which operates a fleet of satellites that closely monitor the planet and leads the charge in Earth Science research.
卡羅.雷蒙德教授指出“把所有這些事聯(lián)系在一起是在顛倒是非。” 卡羅.雷蒙德教授是美國國家航天局噴氣推進實驗室的首席科學家和地理學家，負責操控一組人造衛(wèi)星嚴密監(jiān)控地球的情況， 是地球科學研究的領(lǐng)軍人物。
The website for Canada's national earth science arm also draws no conclusions whatsoever between the fields and the weather. Nor does Russia's magnetic pole watchers at the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics in frosty Siberia.
加拿大國家地球科學研究團隊的網(wǎng)站也未得出任何關(guān)于地球磁場與全球氣候之間有什么聯(lián)系的評論。同樣，位于俄國寒冷的西伯利亞日地物理學機構(gòu)里的磁極觀察員也沒有得出任何關(guān)于此的結(jié)論。
In fact, there's simply no established scientific connection between the concept of superstorms -- and weather in general -- and the Earth's magnetic fields, agreed the scientists FoxNews.com spoke with. And don't let the aurora borealis fool you.
事實上，在定義“超級風暴”， 全球氣候與地球磁場之間并不存在確定的科學聯(lián)系，科學家們贊同F(xiàn)oxNews.com提出的這個看法。所以不要被北極光給蒙蔽了雙眼。
The beautiful and ghostly phenomenon seen in Northern climates is in fact connected to the magnetic fields, Raymond explained, adding yet another cosmic phenomenon to the mixing pot: She said that the sun's particles, carried by the solar wind pouring off the sun, are closely linked to the earth's magnetic field.
在北極氣象當中出現(xiàn)的即美麗又神秘的現(xiàn)象北極光才真的與地球磁場有關(guān)，雷蒙德解釋道。同樣他還指出了另外一個與此相似的宇宙現(xiàn)象，聲稱被太陽風帶出太陽表面的太陽粒子就與地球的磁場密切相關(guān)。
"The earth's magnetic field is the mediator of those particles -- it's basically a shield protecting the Earth from the solar wind, the source of these particles." And that interaction causes events such as the aurora borealis -- an ionospheric event, in the outer atmosphere, she's quick to point out, not something that happens in the inner atmosphere, where our weather occurs.
“地球的磁場是這些粒子的傳遞者---是防止地球受到太陽風傷害的屏障，同樣也是這些粒子的來源。”地球磁場與這些粒子直接的相互作用引起各種現(xiàn)象，比如北極光。北極光是電離層當中的一種現(xiàn)象，處于外大氣層。她很快指出大氣層內(nèi)部是不會發(fā)生如此現(xiàn)象的，而大氣層內(nèi)部才會有氣候現(xiàn)象。
"There's been research over the past few decades trying to isolate a clear cause and effect relationship between charged particles entering the Earth's atmosphere and the weather," Raymond said. But nothing has been proven.
雷蒙德講“在過去的幾十年當中我們一直在試圖找出一個進入地球大氣的帶電粒子與氣候之間的起因與現(xiàn)象之間的清晰聯(lián)系”， 但是沒有任何進展。
Discover's resident "bad astronomer" Phil Plait agrees that the article is a tad sensational.
發(fā)現(xiàn)雜志的常駐“壞天文學家”普萊特贊同這樣的文章是少數(shù)聳人聽聞的文章。
"I’ll be up front right away: this claim is baloney. Garbage. Nonsense," he blogged at Discovermagazine.com.
“我將直言講：這樣的說法簡直是無稽之談，純粹胡扯。”他在Discovermagazine.com發(fā)表博客稱。
Plait goes on to note that, for the record, the Earth’s magnetic poles are distinct from its axis. The movement of the magnetic poles is unrelated to the location of the North Pole, for example. "The Earth’s magnetic field is roughly like that of a bar magnet, with two opposite poles. The field is generated in the Earth’s core as it spins, creating a dynamo," and the magnetic poles don’t line up with the Earth’s physical poles.
普萊特還講到根據(jù)記錄地球的磁極與他的軸線之間有一段距離。比如， 磁極的移動與北極的地點無關(guān)。地球的磁場大致就像是一塊擁有兩個磁極的磁鐵。磁場產(chǎn)生于地球快速旋轉(zhuǎn)的中心，并產(chǎn)生發(fā)電。”而且磁極與地球的物理兩級并不在一條直線上。
So Salem-News.com's connection between the weather and the climate and the magnetic field and the solar wind?
那么Salem-News.com所提出的天氣與氣候和磁場之間，以及太陽風之間的聯(lián)系是否真的是無稽之談呢？
"I have to say it's really very inconclusive," Raymond said.
“我不得不說這真的無法確定”雷蒙德教授講。
The story does have some facts in it, however. For example, the magnetic poles are indeed moving.
但是故事本身存在一些事實依據(jù)。 例如，磁極確實在移動。
The Geological Survey of Canada, which conducts out periodic surveys to monitor magnetic north, says it is slowly drifting across the Canadian Arctic. The most recent survey, completed in May, 2001, determined an updated position for the Pole and established that it is moving approximately northwest at 40 km per year. By 2050, they believe it could have drifted across the earth and into Siberia.
加拿大為了監(jiān)測磁北而進行的周期性的地理調(diào)查顯示磁極正在緩慢的漂過加拿大的北極圈。最近一次進行的調(diào)查是在2001年5月，這次調(diào)查確定了最新的磁極的位置并且確定磁極大致正在以每年40公里的速度向西北方向移動。他們認為，到2050年磁極可能漂過大陸到達西伯利亞。
"We've always known that the Earth's magnetic field is variable, constantly evolving in time," Raymond said.
“眾所周知地球的磁場是變化的，無時無刻不在變化”雷蒙德教授說。
And those massive superstorms themselves? They're definitely a possibility, albeit not connected to the magnetic pole ideas. In fact, one such event struck California in 1861, said Dr. Marty Ralph, Chief of the Water Cycle Branch at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory.
那些大型的超級風暴呢？ 即使與地球磁極沒有任何聯(lián)系， 這樣的超級風暴也當然有可能發(fā)生。事實上，這樣的事件就曾在1861年沖擊過加利福尼亞，馬丁拉爾夫博士如是說。馬丁拉爾夫教授是國家海洋和大氣治理署地球系統(tǒng)研究實驗室水循環(huán)辦事處的主任。
"Local observers called it a 300-mile-long inland sea," Ralph told FoxNews.com. The event occurred, he believes, when a series of phenomena called atmospheric rivers stalled over California. These rivers -- narrow regions of the atmosphere that move the lion's share of the world's water vapor through the atmosphere -- are quite real, and they're quite astounding.
”當?shù)氐挠^察員說事情發(fā)生在一個長達300英里的內(nèi)海（咸水湖）“拉爾夫告訴FoxNews.com稱。他認為這樣的事件發(fā)生時一系列現(xiàn)象恰好也發(fā)生了，即大氣流在加利福尼亞停止了。這些氣流雖然只是大氣的一小部分但是卻移動了地球水氣的大部分，這是真的，簡直讓人無法相信。
They can stretch thousands of miles, for one thing, and move vast amounts of water, sometimes with winds of hurricane force, but focused a few thousand feet above the earth’s surface. "A typical river carries five-to-ten times the amount of water vapor than the Mississippi river carries as liquid, on average," and a big one can carry fifty times, he added. "Most flooding events in the major rivers on the West Coast are a result of atmospheric rivers creating copious rainfall," Ralph said.
他們可以延伸成千上萬公里，這是其一，同時他們也能移動如此大量的水分，雖然有時候通過颶風的力量確實可以如此，但是在幾千尺高的空中簡直令人無法想象。“那就像是一條河流承載著相當于密西西比河平時所承載的五到十倍的水量，而一個更大的超級風暴能夠承載50倍的水量，她補充道。在西海岸大部分主要河流發(fā)生的洪水事件都是由于大氣流的因素引發(fā)的大量降雨所致，拉爾夫教授稱。
Using two real storms that struck California in 1969 and 1986, a team of scientists created a computer model of what would happen were a series of atmospheric rivers to stall over the West Coast over a several week period. The results were presented on January 13 at the ARKStorm Summit.
基于1969年與1986年發(fā)生在加利福尼亞州的兩次風暴，一對科學家制造了一個電腦模型來模擬一系列大氣流停止在了西海岸長達幾周的時間，看看會發(fā)生什么。 實驗的結(jié)果在一月13號的ARK 風暴峰會上公布。
"The conclusion: $400+ billion worth of damage. So it's raised some alarm bells," he told FoxNews.com. "I can say as a scientist involved in defining what real weather conditions could come together to create this, it's plausible."
“結(jié)論是：這造成了4萬億的損失。所以由此給我們敲響了警鐘，我敢斷定參與其中的科學家會斷定真實的天氣狀況能夠共同造成這樣的結(jié)果，這貌似是可信的。”拉爾夫教授告知FoxNews.com.
