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This is Science, Quickly. I’m Andrea Thompson, editor for earth and environment.
这里是《科学快播》栏目。我是地球与环境栏目的编辑--安德里亚·汤普森。
And I’m Jeff DelViscio, chief multimedia editor.
我是首席多媒体编辑--杰夫·德尔维西奥。
And today we’re talking El Nino. Because it’s back.
今天我们要谈的是厄尔尼诺。因为它要回归了。
I am El Nino. All other tropical storms must bow before El Nino.
我是厄尔尼诺。所有其他热带风暴都必须在厄尔尼诺面前低头。
Okay, so just in case you didn’t catch the reference, that was comic Chris Farley......in 1997 on Saturday Night Live.
好吧，以防你没听懂这里的引用，这句台词是喜剧演员克里斯·法利1997年在《周六夜现场》上的表演。
Farley did the bit because that year was one of the strongest El Nino on record.
法利这么说是因为那一年发生了有记录以来最强的厄尔尼诺现象之一。
So it was definitely on the public’s mind in a big way. Though he got the science wrong.
厄尔尼诺绝对引起了公众的广泛关注，尽管法利在科学上搞错了。
Yeah, it was hilarious, but he did. I mean, he's a comic, he's not a scientist.
是的，非常好笑，但他确实搞错了。我是说，他是个喜剧演员，又不是名科学家。
But, El Nino, it was not a tropical storm, like he said.
但厄尔尼诺并不像法利说的那样是热带风暴。
What it actually is … is a natural climate pattern.
厄尔尼诺实际上是一种自然气候模式。
It’s a cycle, really … a push and pull between wind and water over the Pacific Ocean.
厄尔尼诺循环发生，由太平洋上空风和水之间的推拉作用引起。
Right. The whole cycle is actually called ENSO–the El Nino-Southern Oscillation.
没错。其完整周期被称为厄尔尼诺-南方涛动。
The oscillation part is because it seesaws between warm and cold states about every two to seven years.
这种涛动发生是因为大约每两到七年之间冷热交替循环发生。
Okay, so, Andrea, let’s help everyone sorta mentally picture this.
好了，安德里亚，我们来帮大家在头脑中想象一下。
Right, so imagine we’re out in the tropical Pacific, kinda hovering above the Earth, looking down.
好，想象一下我们身处热带太平洋上，盘旋在地球上空，俯视着海面。
And we’d need to be able to see the temperature of the ocean below us, right?
我们需要能够看到我们下方的海洋温度，对吧?
That’s right. And that’s important because when El Nino really gets going what we’d see is this tremendously large lobe of warm water that starts to stretch across the equatorial pacific from east moving west.
没错。这很重要，因为当厄尔尼诺现象真正开始时，我们会看到，巨大的温暖水体会从东向西延伸穿过赤道太平洋。
And that’s not how it normally looks in that part of the Pacific, right?
赤道太平洋通常不会发生这样的现象，对吧？
Right. Normally, during the “neutral” setting the western tropical Pacific is much warmer than the eastern.
对。正常情况下，在“中性”环境中，热带太平洋西部比东部温暖得多。
So that’s just one way to tell if an El Nino is in effect.
因此，这只是判断厄尔尼诺现象是否发生的一种方法。
But how warm is that lobe of water? And how long does it last?
但那片水域温度有多高呢? 这种温度会持续多长时间呢?
So to technically be El Nino, it has to be 0.5 C above normal. And it has to stay that way for at least three months.
严格来说，厄尔尼诺现象发生时，水温要比正常水温高0.5摄氏度。这种情况至少要持续三个月。
And, by the way, it has a counterpart, La Nina, with cold waters, 0.5 C below average. But that’s a podcast for another day.
顺便说一下，厄尔尼诺的对应现象是拉尼娜现象。拉尼娜现象发生时，水温要比一般水温低0.5摄氏度。但那是改天播客要讲的内容。
Got it. So we’ve got this big anomalous water feature.
明白了。我们已经了解了厄尔尼诺现象关键的海洋特征。
But the effects of the El Nino don’t stop at the ocean, do they?
但厄尔尼诺现象带来的影响并不仅限于海洋，不是吗?
Nope.
不仅影响着海洋。
