評(píng)論
打印
North Atlantic hurricanes only account for about 11%
世界只有上大約11%的熱帶氣旋
of the world's tropical cyclones.
是北大西洋颶風(fēng)
But Professor Kerry Emanuel,
然而凱瑞·伊曼紐教授
one of the world's leading hurricane experts,
世界領(lǐng)先的颶風(fēng)專家之一
has started to see something of a pattern
開(kāi)始在自家的后院中
in his own backyard.
看到某種規(guī)律
This last decade was the worst in the record books.
過(guò)去十年的天氣是史上最糟糕的
2005 was an especially bad year.
尤其是2005年
We had a record number of hurricanes.
我們經(jīng)歷了數(shù)量空前的颶風(fēng)
So many they ran out of letters of the alphabet
編號(hào)時(shí)英語(yǔ)字母都用完了
and had to go to the Greek alphabet.
不得不使用希臘字母表
Professor Emanuel is trying to figure out
伊曼紐教授正在設(shè)法
why this might be happening.
找出原因
One crucial factor
一個(gè)關(guān)鍵的因素
is the mechanism that's at the core of what makes them work in the first place.
是颶風(fēng)形成時(shí) 最重要的機(jī)制
Hurricanes are driven by heat.
颶風(fēng)受熱量驅(qū)使
In fact, they're quite simply massive heat engines.
其實(shí)它們簡(jiǎn)直就是超大的熱力發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)
They effectively transfer warmth from the ocean
它們有效地把熱量從海洋中
and into the atmosphere.
轉(zhuǎn)移到大氣層中
