CNN News:美国宇航局将与日本合作发射气象探测卫星应对复杂天气变化

It`s been the season of extremes for residents of southern California. While other parts of the country were shivering under snow, ice and bitter cold, areas near Los Angeles have been parched by drought. Windy dry conditions fostered the spread of wild fires, and when rain finally came from a recent storm system, there wasn`t much vegetation left to soak it up. So that meant mudslides. Thankfully, no death have been reported because of the rain and mudslides, but the drought has been so bad that the storms barely made a dent in water levels. Much of the rain is streaming back out to sea and water reservoirs are still at minimum levels. Even a forecast for more rain isn`t good news for some folks.

对于加利福尼亚南部居民来讲现在这个季节是非常令人抓狂的时候。当美国其它地区被冰雪与寒冷包围时洛杉矶附近区域却忍受着干旱的肆虐袭击。干燥多风的天气孕育出了一场蔓山大火，当雨水终于从云层中撒向大地时，已经没有什么植被可以酣畅淋漓淋雨了。这也就意味着可能要有泥石流的发生。值得庆幸的是没有报道称此次泥石流造成人员伤亡，但是这场强降雨似乎会干旱情形没有带来多大效果。大部分降雨都流回到了海洋里，水库水位仍处于警戒水位以下。对于一些人来将更多地降水预报也未必是好事。

It happened in minutes. Fire scorched land couldn`t hold the rain, so mud poured down from the Glendore foothills below.

大雨在短短几分钟之内倾盆而出，刚刚烧焦的土地存留不住大量的雨水，所以泥水顺着格兰岱尔山脚奔流而下。

It`s . It`s bad. It looks - I mean it`s bad. It hasn`t been this bad in a long time. It wasn`t like this 20 minutes ago.

雨势非常迅猛，泥石流发生速度非常快，非常可怕。很长时间没有发生这么严重泥石流现象了。20分钟之前情况还要比现在严重很多。

They are getting out while they can.

他们在还能跑出来的时候尽快逃了出来。

But you are not taking anything with you, just grabbing your dog?

但是你什么都没拿就只抱着你的狗出来了?

No, we got my laptop. I don`t need too much, too many things. Everything is going to be fine. It`s all replaceable.

不，我带了我的笔记本电脑。我不需要带太多的东西，都会好的，都会过去的。

Just a couple of inches of rain and you can see the effects here when the ground, which is burned by the fire can`t hold all of this and something you`ll notice - the debris it shows - it`s been scarred by wildfire.

现在雨水已经存到几英寸的深度了，你可以看到被大火烧焦后的土地不能承受如此多的雨水漂起了一层层碎片。

We need to make some friends to help get you out. OK?

你需要一些朋友来帮你脱离这里，好么?

Yeah.

好的。

1,000 homes are under a mandatory evacuation order. Because they sit below these scorched hills. Two months ago, it was wildfire. Today, mud into their pools and backyards. California has been in drought for months. The sudden rain caught some by surprise.

1000多所设立在大火山脚下的房子正在进行强制疏散。两个月以前就已经发生过一次野火，这次泥石流闯进了他们家的泳池和后院。加利福尼亚干旱形势已经维持数月时间了，突如其来的大雨着实让人们吃了一惊。

Two people were found stranded in a tree trying to escape the rising water of the Los Angeles River. Take a closer look. It`s not just people, but there are two dogs. You can see the rescuers, the Los Angeles firefighters as they carefully move the frightened animals out of the tree one by one to the nearby rescue boat.

两个人被发现为了摆脱洛杉矶河不断上涨的水位困在了一棵树上。离近了看之后你会发现树上不止有人，还有两只狗。现在你可以看到洛杉矶消防员正在小心翼翼的将受惊的动物从树上拯救下来安全放进旁边的救助艇。

And there`s more rain coming. Just bad news for Kim and Dennis Kralik. They chose not to listen to the mandatory evacuation order. Their one road in and out too covered in mud to drive.

过后还有更多的雨水袭来。这对于Kim和Dennis Kralik来讲可谓是晴天霹雳。他们选择不听从疏散口令，他们唯一一条回家的道路已经堵满了太多的泥水而不能行走。

Because you can`t get out.

因为你不可能出去。

No, not right now. Until they clear this, we`re stuck here.

不，不是现在，直到他们明白之前我们一直困在这里。

What has Mother Nature been like the last couple of months for you?

最后这几个月自然是怎样的?

We had fire, droughts and now torrential rain.

发生了大火，干旱，和这次来势迅猛的降雨。

Winds.

大风。

Yeah, pretty much everything.

对，几乎都发生了一遍。

Yeah, we`ve hit all four elements at this point. I think we are done at this point with any more crazy storms.

是的，我们经历了四种极端天气。我想我们可以迎接更猛烈的暴风雨了。

There may not be much we could do about the weather, but we do a pretty good job of keeping track of it. And NASA has teamed up with Japan`s Aerospace exploration agency to launch a satellite that will track rain and snow. It`s called the Global Precipitation Measurement Co- observatory. And if that sounds like an advanced name, it`s a pretty advanced satellite. It`s designed to circle the earth every hour and a half, observe where it`s raining and send that info back to scientists every three hours. It can tell the difference between rain, ice and snowfall, and the different amounts of each. And it will help researches keep track of the global climate and its water cycle. This is not a cheap project. The satellite cost NASA $933 million. It`s designed to last at least three years.

我们虽然改变不了天气，但是我们可以做一些追踪天气变化的工作。美国宇航局将与日本宇宙研究机构组成追踪小组发射一个可以追踪天气变化的卫星，叫做全球降水测量天文台。如果这听起来是一个比较先进的名字的话那么这颗卫星也就比较先进了。这颗卫星被设计为每一个班小时绕地球一圈，观察世界各地降水情况，每三小时汇报一次。它可以识别雨，冰和雪，区分数量的不同。这颗卫星将帮助科学家追踪全球气候变化和水循环系统。所以这不是一个廉价工程，这颗卫星花费了美国宇航局近9.33亿美元，此次设计研发时间至少持续3年时间。