摆脱飞机尾迹可以帮助拯救地球

摆脱飞机尾迹可以帮助拯救地球

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.

当谈到对环境有严重影响的交通工具时，我们都会立刻想到燃烧汽油的汽车和卡车，但客机也会对环境产生重大影响。客机撞击地球的一种方式，是产生那些我们经常看到划过天空的被称为尾迹的白色细线。

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.

现在，一项致力于减少此类飞机对环境影响的新研究表明，一些非常小的改变可能会产生巨大的积极影响，减少客机造成的损害。

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.

你可能想象不到飞机尾迹会对地球产生多大的影响，但科学告诉我们事实并非如此。这些痕迹本身是由水蒸气组成的，水蒸气会迅速结冰，形成一种冰云，在相当长的一段时间内保持悬浮状态。

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.

就像人造云一样，它们阻挡阳光到达地表，但同时也起到了绝缘体的作用，阻止热量散失到太空中。如果我们能找到一种方法，在不产生这些足迹的情况下，在同样的路线上飞行，环境将会受益，研究人员认为他们找到了答案。

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.

在这项发表在《环境科学与技术》杂志上的新研究中，研究人员指出，商用客机飞行高度的微小变化可能会极大地影响它们产生尾迹的能力。如果飞机的尾迹飞得稍高或稍低，它就会立即停止产生尾迹。事实上，仅仅几千英尺的高度变化就能带来改变。

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会受到这种变化的影响。据美国有线电视新闻网报道，只有大约2%的定期航班会以这种方式进行调整，以显著遏制商业航空旅行对环境的影响。

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.

尽管这样的改变可能会在一定程度上使空中交通管制员的工作复杂化，并可能需要开发新的技术来检测和传递空气状况，以便飞行员知道该飞到哪里以避免飞机尾迹，但好处可能是巨大的。