No Hiding Place?
Jan 7th, 2010 The Economist

http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15211377



Trenberth wants to understand the natural variability just seen.
His quest gained unexpected prominence
when one of his forcefully expressed e-mails on the subject--
"The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment
and it is a travesty that we can't"
--found its way into the public domain as one of thousands of e-mails
from the Climatic Unit of East Anglia University
in the "climategate" furore of November 2009.


(先別急著看中文翻譯, 挑戰一下自己的閱讀能力吧!)




這句措詞強硬的信件標題在氣候門事件曝光的上千封電郵中吸引了眾人的目光
"可是我們卻無法解釋為什麼現在比較不熱! 我們根本是大智若愚!"
(在氣候門事件當下，此話令人誤以為科學家們真的在假造一些數據...XD)
不過他的意思其實是科學家在那麼多設備的幫助下，早該知道不熱的原因才對。

it is a "travesty" that we can't: 曲解 滑稽的模仿->故意裝不能->大智若愚
可以和這個字一起記: trajectory 彈道 軌道(也有曲線之意)



For the first part of the decade this turns out to be possible.
From 1998 to 2003, although surface temperatures were not rising,
a lot of energy was mopped up by the oceans.
This is borne out by the rise in sea level during the period,
which matches (once the additional effects of melting glaciers
are taken into account) the expansion of the water in the oceans
caused by this heating. Until the middle of the 2000s, therefore,
the sums seem to balance.




現在了解前五年不熱的原因是有可能的。
因為從1998到2003年，海洋吸收了很多熱能，雖然海面溫度並沒有上升，
但海水吸熱膨脹造成海平面上升的現象(已排除融冰所造成的海平面上升)，
證實了海水確實吸收了一些熱能。
因此直到兩千年代中期，海水與陸地的總熱量才達到一個平衡。

It is after that that the problem comes.
Runoff's role in the rising sea level increases,
meaning the fraction attributable to expansion,
and thus the amount of heat taken up by the sea,
has fallen (and the chart therefore levels out).
The missing heat must therefore be going somewhere else.

但隨後問題來了。融冰因素還是繼續不斷地使海平面上升，
這意味著海水吸熱膨脹對海平面上升的作用減小了，
也就是說，海水吸收的熱量變少了。(所以表中曲線呈持平狀態)
因此消失的熱量必定去了別的地方。但是什麼地方呢?

runoff election: 平局之後的延長賽 多加一回合
runoff: 徑流 降水融冰在地表漫延
run off: 私奔 跑走遠離


解釋: 本段提及海平面上升主要有兩種原因
1.陸地融冰造成海平面上升
2.海水自己吸熱膨脹造成海平面上升
既然海平面上升並未改變太多
那當陸地融冰對海平面上升影響增加時
就代表海水自己吸熱膨脹造成的海平面上升減少 -> 海水吸收的熱量變少了


※ 編輯: thucydides      來自: 123.194.164.93       (01/21 02:21)