擺脫飛機尾跡可以幫助拯救地球

擺脫飛機尾跡可以幫助拯救地球

When it comes to vehicles that have a serious impact on the environment, we all immediately think of gas-burning cars and trucks, but passenger aircraft can have a significant impact on the environment as well. One way that passenger jets can impact our planet is in producing those wispy white lines called contrails that we so often see streaking across the sky.

當談到對環(huán)境有嚴重影響的交通工具時，我們都會立刻想到燃燒汽油的汽車和卡車，但客機也會對環(huán)境產生重大影響?？蜋C撞擊地球的一種方式，是產生那些我們經常看到劃過天空的被稱為尾跡的白色細線。

Now, a new research effort focusing on reducing the environmental impact of such aircraft has revealed that some very small changes could have a huge positive impact, reducing the damage done by passenger aircraft.

現(xiàn)在，一項致力于減少此類飛機對環(huán)境影響的新研究表明，一些非常小的改變可能會產生巨大的積極影響，減少客機造成的損害。

You might not imagine that contrails could have much of an impact on the planet, but science says otherwise. The trails themselves are made up of water vapor that quickly freezes, forming a sort of ice cloud that remains suspended for a significant amount of time.

你可能想象不到飛機尾跡會對地球產生多大的影響，但科學告訴我們事實并非如此。這些痕跡本身是由水蒸氣組成的，水蒸氣會迅速結冰，形成一種冰云，在相當長的一段時間內保持懸浮狀態(tài)。

Like artificial clouds, they block sunlight from getting to the surface but also act as an insulator, trapping heat that would otherwise be lost to space. If we could find a way to fly the same routes without producing these trails, the environment would benefit and researchers think they have the answer.

就像人造云一樣，它們阻擋陽光到達地表，但同時也起到了絕緣體的作用，阻止熱量散失到太空中。如果我們能找到一種方法，在不產生這些足跡的情況下，在同樣的路線上飛行，環(huán)境將會受益，研究人員認為他們找到了答案。

In the new study, which was published in Environmental Science & Technology, researchers suggest that small tweaks in the altitude of commercial airliners could dramatically impact their ability to produce contrails. A plane that is producing contrails could immediately stop producing them if they were to fly slightly higher or lower. In fact, an altitude change of just a couple of thousand feet can make the difference.

在這項發(fā)表在《環(huán)境科學與技術》雜志上的新研究中，研究人員指出，商用客機飛行高度的微小變化可能會極大地影響它們產生尾跡的能力。如果飛機的尾跡飛得稍高或稍低，它就會立即停止產生尾跡。事實上，僅僅幾千英尺的高度變化就能帶來改變。

The best part is that not all flights would be affected by this change. As CNN reports, only around 2 percent of all scheduled flights would have to be tweaked in this way in order to dramatically curb the environmental impact of commercial air travel.

最重要的是，并不是所有的航班都會受到這種變化的影響。據(jù)美國有線電視新聞網報道，只有大約2%的定期航班會以這種方式進行調整，以顯著遏制商業(yè)航空旅行對環(huán)境的影響。

While changes like this could complicate the jobs of air traffic controllers to a small degree and would likely require the development of new technology to detect and relay air conditions so pilots knew where to fly to avoid contrails, the benefits could be huge.

盡管這樣的改變可能會在一定程度上使空中交通管制員的工作復雜化，并可能需要開發(fā)新的技術來檢測和傳遞空氣狀況，以便飛行員知道該飛到哪里以避免飛機尾跡，但好處可能是巨大的。