新的卫星图像，揭示了地球冰层融化的程度

新的卫星图像，揭示了地球冰层融化的程度

Two new satellite images reveal that Earth’s ice melt is noticeable from space.

两张新的卫星图像显示，地球的冰层融化在太空中是显而易见的。

The new maps — published Thursday as part of a study in the journal Science — vividly depict 16 years of ice loss in Greenland and Antarctica as viewed by laser-emitting NASA satellite images.

作为《科学》杂志一项研究的一部分，星期四出版的新地图生动地描绘了16年来格陵兰岛和南极洲的冰层消融，这是由美国宇航局的激光卫星图像所展示的。

The images paint a picture of rapidly-melting ice along the coasts of both regions — shown in red and purple in the maps — seeming to outweigh the modest ice-mass gains inland, which are shown in light blue.

这些图片描绘了这两个地区海岸上迅速融化的冰的画面——在地图上用红色和紫色显示——似乎超过了内陆地区以浅蓝色显示的冰量增加。

According to the study, Greenland’s ice sheet lost an average of 200 gigatons of ice per year and Antarctica’s ice sheet lost an average of 118 gigatons of ice per year. One gigaton of ice is enough to fill 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

根据这项研究，格陵兰岛的冰原每年平均损失2000亿吨冰，南极洲的冰原每年平均损失1180亿吨冰。1亿吨冰足够填满40万个奥运会标准大小的游泳池。

“It was amazing to see how good the ICESat-2 data looked, right out of the gate,” said co-author Tom Neumann, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “These first results looking at land ice confirm the consensus from other research groups, but they also let us look at the details of change in individual glaciers and ice shelves at the same time.”

来自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合著者汤姆·诺伊曼(Tom Neumann)说：“看到ICESat-2数据的外观真是太棒了，这真是令人惊讶。这些关于陆地冰的最初结果证实了其他研究小组达成了共识，但他们也让我们同时了解了各个冰川和冰架变化的细节。”

Of the sea level rise that resulted from ice sheet meltwater and iceberg calving, about two-thirds of it came Greenland with the other third from Antarctica, the researchers said.

研究人员说，在冰盖融化和冰山崩解导致的海平面上升中，大约三分之二来自格陵兰岛，另三分之一来自南极洲。

“The new analysis reveals the ice sheets’ response to changes in climate with unprecedented detail, revealing clues as to why and how the ice sheets are reacting the way they are,” co-author Alex Gardner, a glaciologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement.

“新的分析以前所未有的细节揭示了冰盖对气候变化的反应，揭示了冰盖为什么和如何反应的线索。”合著者、美国宇航局喷气推进实验室的冰川学家亚历克斯·加德纳(Alex Gardner)在一份声明中说。

“In West Antarctica, we’re seeing a lot of glaciers thinning very rapidly,” Smith said. “There are ice shelves at the downstream end of those glaciers, floating on water. And those ice shelves are thinning, letting more ice flow out into the ocean as the warmer water erodes the ice.”

史密斯说：“在南极洲西部，我们看到许多冰川正在迅速变薄。这些冰川的下游末端有冰架，漂浮在水面上。而这些冰架正在变薄，让更多的冰随着温暖的海水侵蚀而流入海洋。”