美国国家公共电台 NPR Studying The Ripple Effects Of Shrinking Arctic Sea Ice

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Arctic sea ice is one of the most dramatic indicators¹ of the changing climate. Some months, the ice cover on the Arctic Ocean is about half of what it was decades ago. And its thickness has shrunk substantially. Changes in the ice may also mean a host of other changes in the Arctic system and around the globe. To better understand this, scientists have frozen an icebreaker alongside an arctic ice floe² that they will observe for a whole year. And that's where our reporter Ravenna Koenig caught up with them.

RAVENNA KOENIG, BYLINE³: Out on an ice floe about 5 degrees from the North Pole, a bunch of scientists are setting up equipment. It's part of a project called MOSAiC⁴, or the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory⁵ for the Study of Arctic Climate. And the primary question they're trying to answer is, what are the causes of diminishing Arctic ice? And what are the consequences? Ocean physicist⁶ Tim Stanton stands surrounded by boxes of tools and equipment, next to a hole in the ice, about 15 miles from where the MOSAiC ship is frozen in.

TIM STANTON: OK. I've got to just get the hairdryer.

KOENIG: Ooh, a hairdryer?

STANTON: Well, it's a electrical - what do you call it? - heat gun. It'll frizz your hair, that's for sure.

KOENIG: It's about 18 degrees Fahrenheit⁷. And the heat gun is for warming up electrical connectors on a science buoy⁸.

(SOUNDBITE OF HEAT GUN WARMING)

KOENIG: Stanton is in the middle of a grueling eight-hour process to install the buoy. It will operate independently out here throughout the year, collecting data from all sorts of scientific bells and whistles that hang below it in the water.

STANTON: The flux⁹ package mounts on here. And that's what measures the transport of heat, salt and momentum¹⁰ in the water column.

KOENIG: Here is why Stanton's interested in those things. As more sea ice melts in the summertime, it's contributing fresher water to the top of the ocean. The saltier ocean water, which sits lower because it's more dense¹¹, can create a barrier that prevents the fresher water from going down. If that top water is trapped near the surface, Stanton thinks it can absorb a lot more heat from the sun and lead to even more melting of the ice.

STANTON: You can get these fresh, warm layers that - when a little bit of wind comes along, does a little bit of mixing - really melts the heck out of the ice.

KOENIG: He thinks this might play an important role in why the sea ice is disappearing as fast as it is. While Stanton is asking questions about things that are going on below the ice, other scientists are looking at things going on above it, like Jessie Creamean, who's out on the ice testing a device that collects tiny particles from the atmosphere called aerosols¹³.

JESSIE CREAMEAN: Little aerosol¹² sampler. Do well today.

KOENIG: No, we're not talking about the ones in hairspray. Aerosols can be dust, pollen¹⁴ or fungi¹⁵. And they're the seeds that clouds need to grow. And in the Arctic, scientists think that they can also come from tiny organisms in the water, like bacteria or algae¹⁶. Less ice on the ocean could mean more aerosols getting blown from the water into the atmosphere and seeding more clouds.

CREAMEAN: My hypothesis is from open water sources, we get generation of these particles from microbes in the ocean.

KOENIG: There's a lot that scientists still want to find out about clouds in the Arctic. But one thing they know is that they're important for regulating temperature - kind of like a thermostat¹⁷. Depending on the season, whether the clouds are over water or ice and the features of the clouds, they can wind up cooling or warming the Earth below them.

CREAMEAN: That affects how much heat can basically help melt the sea ice. Or it can actually reflect sunlight from the sea ice. So it has a big role in controlling how much sea ice we have here.

KOENIG: Creamean and Stanton are two among hundreds of scientists from different disciplines who are trying to better understand how different parts of this changing region work.

MATTHEW SHUPE: How the atmosphere interacts with the sea ice, how the ocean interacts with the sea ice, the ecosystem¹⁸, the bio-geochemical processes.

KOENIG: That's Matthew Shupe, an atmospheric¹⁹ scientist and one of the coordinators of the expedition. So why do scientists need to know all this?

SHUPE: This whole project is aimed at improving our models.

KOENIG: When Shupe says models, he means the computer simulations scientists use to get estimates for things like how much the earth could warm in the next 50 years. The better you reflect reality in those simulations, the better a prediction you'll get. But because so little is known about the Arctic ice system, Shupe says that the predictions for how it will respond to climate change vary a lot.

SHUPE: The Arctic is a place where the models agree the least. So that tells us that we're missing something.

KOENIG: Improving the models will help forecast things like when the Arctic Ocean might have its first ice-free summer, how quickly the globe is going to warm as a whole and how the melting Greenland ice sheet will add to global sea-level rise. By observing how all the little pieces of the system fit together over the next year, scientists hope they can bring that big picture into clearer focus. For NPR News, I'm Ravenna Koenig in the central Arctic Ocean.

1 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

2 floe   

n.大片浮冰

参考例句：

• Two penguins are standing on ice floe.两只企鹅站在一块浮冰上。
• Somehow the seal manages to reach a tiny ice floe.不知何故，海豹设法到达了一块小浮冰上。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

5 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

6 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

7 Fahrenheit   

n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的)

参考例句：

• He was asked for the boiling point of water in Fahrenheit.他被问到水的沸点是华氏多少度。
• The thermometer reads 80 degrees Fahrenheit.寒暑表指出华氏80度。

8 buoy   

n.浮标；救生圈；v.支持，鼓励

参考例句：

• The party did little to buoy up her spirits.这次聚会并没有让她振作多少。
• The buoy floated back and forth in the shallow water.这个浮标在浅水里漂来漂去。

9 flux   

n.流动；不断的改变

参考例句：

• The market is in a constant state of flux.市场行情在不断变化。
• In most reactors,there is a significant flux of fast neutrons.在大部分反应堆中都有一定强度的快中子流。

10 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

11 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

12 aerosol   

n.悬浮尘粒，气溶胶，烟雾剂，喷雾器

参考例句：

• They sprayed aerosol insect repellent into the faces of police.他们将喷雾驱虫剂喷在了警察的脸上。
• Aerosol particles affect visibility,climate,and our health and quality of life.气溶胶对大气能见度、气候变化以及人类健康等有重要影响。

13 aerosols   

n.气溶胶( aerosol的名词复数 )；喷雾剂；（气体中的）浮粒；喷雾器

参考例句：

• Aerosols are present throughout the atmosphere. 气溶胶存在于整个大气层。 来自辞典例句
• Deodorants are available as aerosols or roll-ons. 除臭剂有喷雾装或滚抹装。 来自辞典例句

14 pollen   

n.[植]花粉

参考例句：

• Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious.蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
• He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。

15 fungi   

n.真菌，霉菌

参考例句：

• Students practice to apply the study of genetics to multicellular plants and fungi.学生们练习把基因学应用到多细胞植物和真菌中。
• The lawn was covered with fungi.草地上到处都是蘑菇。

16 algae   

n.水藻，海藻

参考例句：

• Most algae live in water.多数藻类生长在水中。
• Algae grow and spread quickly in the lake.湖中水藻滋蔓。

17 thermostat   

n.恒温器

参考例句：

• The thermostat is connected by a link to the carburetor.恒温控制器是由一根连杆与汽化器相连的。
• The temperature is controlled by electronic thermostat with high accuracy.电子恒温器，准确性高。

18 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。

19 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。