Typhoons are among the most ferocious natural disasters in the world. Their violent winds and torrential rains can go on for days, causing severe damage and serious loss of human life. Now an international team of meteorologists will fly into the very heart of the storms.
颱風是最具殺傷力的自然災害之一,它所帶來的狂風豪雨可以持續數日,對人類生命及財產造成極大傷害。現在,一個跨國氣象團隊,將深入颱風中心一探究竟。
The Pacific Ocean. It was called Mare Pacificum, literally, “peaceful sea”, by European explorers, but it is anything but peaceful. Some of the most violent storms on the planet originate in these waters. Each year around 80 tropical cyclones form around the world, 26 of them form in the northwest Pacific, and four of them strike Taiwan. It’s one of the most typhoon-hit places on the planet. With wind speeds that can exceed 250km per hour, the global cost of typhoon damage equals or exceeds that of earthquakes or any other type of natural catastrophe. In a single year more than US$500 million (NT$17 billion) is spent clearing up the damage in Taiwan, up to 85 percent of which is due to climatic disasters. Dr. Wu Chun-chieh is the professor of atmospheric science in National Taiwan University. Dr Wu grew up in the southeast coast of Taiwan, where the majority of direct typhoon landfalls occur. The violence of the storms is etched indelibly in his memory. For the past 15 years he has been unlocking their secrets.
太平洋是歐洲探險家口中的「平靜之洋」,不過平靜的外表下卻是暗潮洶湧。地球上威力強大的暴風,有些是在這個海域生成。全球每年大約有八十個熱帶氣旋產生,其中二十六個來自於西北太平洋,有四個會直接侵襲台灣,這使得台灣成為颱風登陸頻率最高的地方之一。每小時超過兩百五十公里的風速,也讓全球風災的損失,相當於或超過地震和其他天災。在台灣,平均每年的風災損失超過五億美元(新台幣一百七十億元),占了所有氣象災害損失的百分之八十五。吳俊傑博士是台灣大學大氣科學系的教授,他生長在颱風登陸最頻繁的台灣東南沿岸,狂風暴雨在他心中留下深刻的記憶,十五年來他一直為了解開颱風背後的祕密而努力。
In 2003, Dr Wu initiated the first “typhoon hunting” program in Asia. It’s called Dropsonde Observation for Typhoon Surveillance near the Taiwan Region, or DOTSTAR for short. Using specially equipped aircraft his team of typhoon hunters gather data essential for understanding the mechanism of the storms. It’s dangerous, specialized work. Few can do it. His project makes Taiwan only the second country in the world to use manned aircraft to monitor tropical cyclones.
二00三年時,吳博士啟動了亞洲第一個「追風計畫」,計畫的全名是「侵台颱風之飛機偵察及投落送觀測實驗」,簡稱 DOTSTAR。追風團隊搭乘特別改裝過的偵察機,收集重要資料,進而了解颱風的結構。這是項危險又專業的工作,只有少數人能勝任。這計畫讓台灣成為全世界第二個使用載人飛機偵測熱帶氣旋的國家。
The key to their research is the special GPS weather sensors they drop into the storm, called dropsondes. These devices relay crucial data back to the scientists, because over the ocean there are essentially no traditional observations. So for hurricanes or typhoons, we need to have some special data from radar or from satellite. But those are all remote sensing data. There is one more specific way to take the data from hurricanes — through airplanes. It’s an in situ observation and therefore we get a better opportunity to improve our understanding of typhoons.
這項研究的祕密武器,是被投入暴風中的大氣偵測探空儀,俗稱「投落送」,這種儀器可將重要資訊回傳給科學家們,因為在海面上無法使用傳統的氣象偵測方法,所以我們會透過雷達或衛星來取得颱風的資料,不過這些都是遙控感測的資料。另一種取得颱風資料的方法是透過飛機進行直接觀測,這種方法可以讓我們更進一步了解颱風。
South Korea’s famous kimchi is falling victim to climate change, with scientists, farmers and manufacturers saying the quality and quantity of the napa cabbage that is pickled to make the ubiquitous dish is suffering due to rising temperatures. Napa cabbage thrives in cooler climates, and is usually planted in mountainous regions where temperatures during the key growing summer season once rarely rose above 25 degrees Celsius. Studies show that warmer weather brought about by climate change is now threatening these crops, so much so that South Korea might not be able to grow napa cabbage one day due to the intensifying heat. “We
It’s widely recognized that there are far more right-handed people than left-handed people in the world. Being right-handed simply means preferring to use one’s right hand for tasks that involve only one hand, such as writing and eating. But have you ever wondered about the possible reasons behind the global dominance of the right hand over the left? As with many complex biological questions, multiple factors appear to be at play. First, one reason seems to be genetics. __1__ Therefore, the global dominance of right-handedness is something that has been passed down through many generations of humans. Next,
A: What’s even more horrible is that the five suspects who purposely supplied ketamine to actor Matthew Perry were all his “friends.” B: Who exactly are the five suspects? A: They include Matthew’s two doctors, a broker, a drug dealer, and even his live-in assistant. B: Those scumbags should go to jail. A: Yeah, one of the doctors may be sentenced to up to 120 years in prison. A: 更可怕的是,提供男星馬修派瑞「K他命」的5人全是他的「朋友」。 B: 嫌犯是誰啊? A: 其中包括他的2位醫生、1位仲介、1位毒販、甚至他的同居助理! B: 那些人渣真該去坐牢。 A: 對啊,其中1位醫生可能面臨120年徒刑。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Continued from yesterday(延續自昨日) https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang Finally, cultural influence also plays a role in which hand people prefer. Historically, items that require physical manipulation have been designed for right-handed use. For example, tools like scissors and musical instruments are often constructed with right-handers in mind, making it difficult for left-handers to use them. __4__ While these factors offer some explanation, they remain speculative. The precise reasons for the global prevalence of right-handed people continue to be debated. Nevertheless, left-handedness will remain a phenomenon of great curiosity among scientists and researchers for many years to come. 最後,文化影響也在人們偏好哪一隻手上扮演一角。歷史上,需要用到肢體操作的物品都被設計來供右手使用。舉例來說,像是剪刀、樂器等工具常常就是考慮到右撇子而打造的,造成左撇子難以使用這些工具。因此,許多天生就是左撇子的人可能就必須透過學習使用右手來適應。 雖然這些因素都提供了一些解釋,但它們仍是推測而已。全球右撇子如此普及,確切的原因仍持續被爭論著。不過,在未來的許多年裡,左撇子依然會是科學家和研究人員相當好奇的一個現象。 What Did You Learn? (A) Specifically, different areas of