热量如何影响地球气候

The Climate Events of 2020 Show How Excess Heat is Expressed on Earth

2020年的气候事件显示了地球上过剩的热量是如何影响地球气候的？

By most accounts, 2020 has been a rough year for the planet. It was the warmest year on record, just barely exceeding the record set in 2016 by less than a tenth of a degree according to NASA’s analysis. Massive wildfires scorched Australia, Siberia, and the United States’ west coast – and many of the fires were still burning during the busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record.

从大多数角度来看，2020年对地球来说是艰难的一年。根据美国宇航局的分析，这是有史以来最温暖的一年，只是勉强超过2016年创下的纪录，不到十分之一度。大规模的野火烧毁了澳大利亚、西伯利亚和美国西海岸--在有记录以来最繁忙的大西洋飓风季节，许多野火还在燃烧。

“This year has been a very striking example of what it’s like to live under some of the most severe effects of climate change that we’ve been predicting,” said Lesley Ott, a research meteorologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"今年是一个非常显著的例子，说明在我们预测最严重的气候变化影响下，生活是这样子的，"位于马里兰州格林贝尔特的美国宇航局戈达德太空飞行中心的研究气象学家莱斯利-奥特说。

Decades of greenhouse gas emissions set the stage for this year’s events

数十年的温室气体排放为去年的气候事件奠定了基础

Human-produced greenhouse gas emissions are largely responsible for warming our planet. Burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas releases greenhouse gases – such as carbon dioxide – into the atmosphere, where they act like an insulating blanket and trap heat near Earth’s surface.

人类制造的温室气体排放在很大程度上要对我们的地球变暖负责。煤炭、石油和天然气等化石燃料的燃烧会将二氧化碳等温室气体释放到大气中，这些气体在大气中就像一张隔热毯，将热量聚集在地球表面附近。

“The natural processes Earth has for absorbing carbon dioxide released by human activities – plants and the ocean – just aren’t enough to keep up with how much carbon dioxide we’re putting into the atmosphere,” said Gavin Schmidt, climate scientist and Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City.

"地球吸收人类活动所释放的二氧化碳的自然过程--植物和海洋--还不足以跟上我们向大气中排放的二氧化碳的数量。"气候科学家、美国宇航局纽约市戈达德空间研究所（GISS）所长加文-施密特说。

Carbon dioxide levels have increased by nearly 50% since the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago. The amount of methane in the atmosphere has more than doubled. As a result, during this period, Earth has warmed by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (just over 1 degree Celsius).

自250年前的工业革命以来，二氧化碳的含量增加了近50%。大气中的甲烷含量增加了一倍多。因此，在此期间，地球升温了约2华氏度（略高于1摄氏度）。

Climate modelers have predicted that, as the planet warms, Earth will experience more severe heat waves and droughts, larger and more extreme wildfires, and longer and more intense hurricane seasons on average. The events of 2020 are consistent with what models have predicted: extreme climate events are more likely because of greenhouse gas emissions.

气候模型学家预测，随着地球变暖，地球将经历更严重的热浪和干旱，更大、更极端的野火，以及平均更长、更强烈的飓风季节。2020年发生的事件与模型的预测一致：由于温室气体排放，极端气候事件更有可能发生。

Heat waves fanned the flames of extreme wildfires across the globe

热浪在全球范围内煽起了极端野火的火焰

Climate change has led to longer fire seasons, as vegetation dries out earlier and persistent high temperatures allow fires to burn longer. This year, heat waves and droughts added fuel for the fires, setting the stage for more intense fires in 2020.

气候变化导致火灾季节延长，因为植被提前干涸，持续高温让火灾燃烧的时间更长。今年，热浪和干旱为火灾增添了燃料，为2020年更猛烈的火势奠定了基础。

The Australian bushfires that started in 2019 continued into 2020 due to sustained high temperatures, burning vast forested areas and sending smoke around the globe. The heat wave helped the fires grow rapidly, burning over 20% of the Australian temperate forest biome. Fire-induced thunderstorms called pyrocumulonimbus events resulted in smoke plumes that reached a record-breaking 18 mile (30 kilometer) altitude – crossing into the stratosphere. Smoke released from the bushfires circumnavigated the globe before returning to the skies over Australia.

由于持续的高温，2019年开始的澳大利亚丛林大火一直持续到2020年，烧毁了广大的森林面积，并将浓烟送到全球各地。热浪帮助火势迅速增长，烧毁了澳大利亚20%以上的温带森林生物群落。火灾引发的雷暴被称为热流云事件，导致烟羽的高度达到创纪录的18英里（30公里）--穿越到平流层。丛林大火释放出的烟雾绕地球一圈，然后再回到澳大利亚上空。

Hundreds of wildfires burned throughout the western United States this past year, making it the most active fire season on record. Fires in Colorado grew quickly as heat waves enabled the fire to burn faster and hotter. In California, more than 650 fires were actively burning in late August; the largest of these – the August Complex Fire – burned over a million acres.

在过去的一年里，美国西部有数百场野火在燃烧，成为有记录以来最活跃的火灾季节。科罗拉多州的火势迅速增长，因为热浪使火势燃烧得更快、更热。在加州，8月下旬有650多起火灾在积极燃烧；其中最大的火灾--8月复杂火灾--烧毁面积超过100万英亩。

A heat wave hit the Arctic Circle this summer, with temperatures rising above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in some parts of Siberia. This heat wave triggered a wildfire outbreak that reignited “zombie fires” from the previous year.

去年夏天，一股热浪袭击了北极圈，西伯利亚部分地区的气温上升到100华氏度以上。这股热浪引发了野火的爆发，使上一年的 "僵尸火 "重新燃起。

Zombie fires can occur when fires burn in areas with permafrost, carbon-rich soil that typically stays frozen year-round. Zombie fires burn so deep in the permafrost layer that they can continue to smolder under a blanket of snow throughout winter and can reemerge in the spring.

当大火在有永冻土的地区燃烧时，就会发生僵尸火，永冻土是一种富含碳元素的土壤，通常常年保持冻结状态。僵尸火在永久冻土层深处燃烧，以至于它们可以在整个冬天的白雪覆盖下继续燃烧，并可能在春天重新出现。

Wildfires in the Arctic have long-term impacts on Earth’s climate system. Tundra and boreal fires release methane and carbon in these regions that have been accumulating for centuries into the atmosphere. Burning also creates the conditions for continued permafrost layer thaw, resulting in increased greenhouse gas emissions for years to come.

北极的野火对地球的气候系统有长期影响。苔原和北方地区的火灾会将这些地区积累了几个世纪的甲烷和碳释放到大气中。燃烧还为永久冻土层的持续解冻创造了条件，导致未来几年温室气体排放量增加。

Earth is continuing to lose a key player in the fight against climate change: ice

地球在应对气候变化中继续正失去一个关键力量：冰

This year wasn’t a record-breaker for ice loss at sea or on land. But ice plays a key role in regulating Earth’s temperature, and the overall trends show we’re continuously losing ice around the globe.

今年海面和陆地上的冰层损失并没有创下记录。但冰在调节地球温度方面起着关键作用，总体趋势显示，在全球范围内的冰正在不断流失。

The planet is losing about 13.1% of Arctic sea ice by area each decade, according to sea ice minimum data from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. Studies of sea ice thickness have also shown that sea ice is a lot thinner than it used to be.

根据美国国家航空航天局（NASA）和科罗拉多州博尔德市国家冰雪数据中心的海冰最小值数据，地球每十年按面积计算，北极海冰损失约13.1%。对海冰厚度的研究也表明，海冰比过去薄了很多。

Sea ice floating in the Arctic acts like an insulating barrier, preventing the ocean from heating the atmosphere. Sea ice is also so bright that it reflects heat energy from the Sun away from Earth. Without sea ice, that energy would be absorbed by the darker ocean waters, leading to even higher sea surface temperatures.

漂浮在北极的海冰就像一个绝缘屏障，防止海洋加热大气。海冰还非常明亮，它能把太阳的热能从地球上反射出去。如果没有海冰，这些能量就会被黑暗的海水吸收，导致海面温度更高。

source：

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/the-climate-events-of-2020-show-how-excess-heat-is-expressed-on-earth