VOA慢速英语2015 卫星关注太阳风暴并向地球发送警报

Satellite Will Watch Sun Storms, Send Warnings to Earth 卫星关注太阳风暴并向地球发送警报

A new satellite is travelling 1.5 million kilometers over a 110-day period to enter an orbit of the sun. It is called DSCOVR -- the Deep Space Climate Observatory¹. It will replace a satellite that has been observing space weather.

DSCOVR will begin its work during the worst of the 11-year-long solar cycle. This is a time when extreme weather on the sun can have the greatest effect on planet Earth.

DSCOVR will gather information about a continuing flow of particles from the sun. We are protected from these particles by the Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere. But we are not fully² protected from what scientists call Coronal Mass Ejections. These are strong storms that can happen on the sun’s surface.

Thomas Berger is the director of the Space Weather Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric³ Administration, or NOAA. He says these ejections are much more dangerous than solar particles. He says the Coronal Mass Ejections are extremely large magnetic clouds that are expelled from the sun at extremely high speeds. He says when they impact Earth, it is like a hurricane impacting Earth in terms of space weather.

Violent space weather can make electric systems stop working. It can block satellite signals to Earth. It can interfere⁴ with radio signals and air travel.

Mr. Berger says we cannot stop the ejections from affecting us, but we can prepare for them if we know when they will happen. When the DSCOVR satellite records an ejection, it will release a warning. Mr. Berger says the warning will provide NOAA about 15 to 60 minutes to let people know that a very strong storm is coming in to the Earth. He says that is enough time for power grid⁵ operators to take protective action. He says it is also enough time for workers to place satellites on a safe operating method if necessary.

Mr. Berger says scientists would like even more time, of course. He says researchers are developing instruments that will give an earlier warning.

The warnings from DSCOVR will be for the whole planet. But Mr. Berger says a new system may be able to give more-targeted warnings. He says future models will be able to tell exactly what part of the world will be more at risk from a solar storm.

That means that, for the first time, humans will get both a warning that a magnetic storm is heading towards Earth and information about where it is likely to hit.

Words in This Story

magnetic – adj. capable of being attracted by the properties of a magnet

ejection – n. the action of forcing or throwing something out

impact – v. to hit (something) with great force

hurricane – n. an extremely large, powerful, and destructive storm with very strong winds

grid – n. a metal frame with bars running across it that is used to cover an opening

1 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。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 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。

4 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

5 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。