歌曲 | Supercomputers are used to predict the weather |
歌手 | 英语听力 |
专辑 | VOA慢速英语:科技报道 |
下载 | Image LRC TXT |
[00:00.10] | From VOA Learning English, |
[00:00.73] | this is the Technology Report. |
[00:03.62] | Many Americans start to closely follow weather reports |
[00:07.90] | in the early fall. |
[00:09.69] | During the Atlantic hurricane season, |
[00:11.94] | predicting the strength and movement of |
[00:15.47] | these huge storm systems is of crucial importance. |
[00:20.16] | Thanks to new supercomputers, |
[00:22.56] | meteorologists for the National Oceanic |
[00:26.59] | and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) |
[00:28.58] | are getting better at predicting the weather |
[00:31.82] | as far as six days out. |
[00:34.56] | Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast last October, |
[00:39.40] | and caused deaths and widespread damage, |
[00:43.78] | it was one of the costliest storm in U.S. history. |
[00:49.02] | At the time, some people blamed meteorologists |
[00:53.50] | for not correctly predicting the path of the storm. |
[00:57.64] | But weather forecasting is extremely difficult, says Ben Kyger. |
[01:03.61] | He is the Director of Central Operations |
[01:06.74] | at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction |
[01:11.07] | in College Park, Maryland. |
[01:13.32] | "You’ve got major patterns in the atmosphere, |
[01:16.61] | like the jet stream, |
[01:18.25] | but you’ve also got little eddies, little currents, |
[01:21.33] | little things happening all over the place. |
[01:23.72] | All these little changes are interacting with each other, |
[01:27.31] | continuously, all day long. |
[01:28.55] | So if you look at it from above, from a satellite, |
[01:31.25] | you see the atmosphere moving |
[01:33.04] | and churning in big ways and little ways." |
[01:35.73] | Ben Kyger says oceans are another issue |
[01:39.51] | because they closely interact with the atmosphere |
[01:43.44] | and have a huge effect on storms. |
[01:46.97] | NOAA has spent about $20 million on two new supercomputers, |
[01:53.80] | in an effort to improve the dependability of the forecasts. |
[01:58.93] | "These computers generate the initial model guidance |
[02:02.86] | that the whole forecast process depends on, |
[02:05.50] | for all the weather information that you see, |
[02:08.49] | with snowstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, |
[02:12.17] | how hot it’s going to be today |
[02:14.12] | — all of your weather forecasts start |
[02:16.22] | with what comes off of these supercomputers." |
[02:19.51] | It takes a huge amount of computational power |
[02:22.80] | to examine data from weather satellites, |
[02:26.64] | ground stations and other sources. |
[02:30.02] | It then take a lot of power to predict temperature, |
[02:34.16] | air pressure, humidity and wind speed. |
[02:37.99] | But human brains and experience |
[02:41.24] | are still very important to the process. |
[02:44.02] | Meteorologists at the National Centers |
[02:47.71] | for Environmental Prediction scan the same data |
[02:51.74] | that the supercomputers get before issuing a weather report. |
[02:56.24] | "They are looking at lots of different models run of different computers, |
[03:00.73] | and then they are creating that five-day forecast. |
[03:05.12] | They use lots of scientific and subjective knowledge |
[03:09.01] | from doing it year after year. |
[03:10.85] | They know where the models are strong, where they’re weak |
[03:13.88] | and they give us significantly better forecasts |
[03:16.98] | than the models would do by themselves." |
[03:19.02] | NOAA issues worldwide forecasts every six hours every day of the year. |
[03:26.05] | The reports are free and are helpful for many countries |
[03:32.27] | that cannot afford their own weather service. |
[03:35.85] | NOAA continues working to improve its weather-forecasting abilities, |
[03:40.93] | another upgrade of its weather-predicting supercomputers |
[03:45.11] | is planed for as earlier as 2015. |
[03:49.39] | And that is the Technology Report from VOA Learning English. |
[03:55.27] | I'm June Simms. |
[00:00.10] | From VOA Learning English, |
[00:00.73] | this is the Technology Report. |
[00:03.62] | Many Americans start to closely follow weather reports |
[00:07.90] | in the early fall. |
[00:09.69] | During the Atlantic hurricane season, |
[00:11.94] | predicting the strength and movement of |
[00:15.47] | these huge storm systems is of crucial importance. |
[00:20.16] | Thanks to new supercomputers, |
[00:22.56] | meteorologists for the National Oceanic |
[00:26.59] | and Atmospheric Administration NOAA |
[00:28.58] | are getting better at predicting the weather |
[00:31.82] | as far as six days out. |
[00:34.56] | Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast last October, |
[00:39.40] | and caused deaths and widespread damage, |
[00:43.78] | it was one of the costliest storm in U. S. history. |
[00:49.02] | At the time, some people blamed meteorologists |
[00:53.50] | for not correctly predicting the path of the storm. |
[00:57.64] | But weather forecasting is extremely difficult, says Ben Kyger. |
[01:03.61] | He is the Director of Central Operations |
[01:06.74] | at NOAA' s National Centers for Environmental Prediction |
[01:11.07] | in College Park, Maryland. |
[01:13.32] | " You' ve got major patterns in the atmosphere, |
[01:16.61] | like the jet stream, |
[01:18.25] | but you' ve also got little eddies, little currents, |
[01:21.33] | little things happening all over the place. |
[01:23.72] | All these little changes are interacting with each other, |
[01:27.31] | continuously, all day long. |
[01:28.55] | So if you look at it from above, from a satellite, |
[01:31.25] | you see the atmosphere moving |
[01:33.04] | and churning in big ways and little ways." |
[01:35.73] | Ben Kyger says oceans are another issue |
[01:39.51] | because they closely interact with the atmosphere |
[01:43.44] | and have a huge effect on storms. |
[01:46.97] | NOAA has spent about 20 million on two new supercomputers, |
[01:53.80] | in an effort to improve the dependability of the forecasts. |
[01:58.93] | " These computers generate the initial model guidance |
[02:02.86] | that the whole forecast process depends on, |
[02:05.50] | for all the weather information that you see, |
[02:08.49] | with snowstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, |
[02:12.17] | how hot it' s going to be today |
[02:14.12] | all of your weather forecasts start |
[02:16.22] | with what comes off of these supercomputers." |
[02:19.51] | It takes a huge amount of computational power |
[02:22.80] | to examine data from weather satellites, |
[02:26.64] | ground stations and other sources. |
[02:30.02] | It then take a lot of power to predict temperature, |
[02:34.16] | air pressure, humidity and wind speed. |
[02:37.99] | But human brains and experience |
[02:41.24] | are still very important to the process. |
[02:44.02] | Meteorologists at the National Centers |
[02:47.71] | for Environmental Prediction scan the same data |
[02:51.74] | that the supercomputers get before issuing a weather report. |
[02:56.24] | " They are looking at lots of different models run of different computers, |
[03:00.73] | and then they are creating that fiveday forecast. |
[03:05.12] | They use lots of scientific and subjective knowledge |
[03:09.01] | from doing it year after year. |
[03:10.85] | They know where the models are strong, where they' re weak |
[03:13.88] | and they give us significantly better forecasts |
[03:16.98] | than the models would do by themselves." |
[03:19.02] | NOAA issues worldwide forecasts every six hours every day of the year. |
[03:26.05] | The reports are free and are helpful for many countries |
[03:32.27] | that cannot afford their own weather service. |
[03:35.85] | NOAA continues working to improve its weatherforecasting abilities, |
[03:40.93] | another upgrade of its weatherpredicting supercomputers |
[03:45.11] | is planed for as earlier as 2015. |
[03:49.39] | And that is the Technology Report from VOA Learning English. |
[03:55.27] | I' m June Simms. |
[00:00.10] | From VOA Learning English, |
[00:00.73] | this is the Technology Report. |
[00:03.62] | Many Americans start to closely follow weather reports |
[00:07.90] | in the early fall. |
[00:09.69] | During the Atlantic hurricane season, |
[00:11.94] | predicting the strength and movement of |
[00:15.47] | these huge storm systems is of crucial importance. |
[00:20.16] | Thanks to new supercomputers, |
[00:22.56] | meteorologists for the National Oceanic |
[00:26.59] | and Atmospheric Administration NOAA |
[00:28.58] | are getting better at predicting the weather |
[00:31.82] | as far as six days out. |
[00:34.56] | Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast last October, |
[00:39.40] | and caused deaths and widespread damage, |
[00:43.78] | it was one of the costliest storm in U. S. history. |
[00:49.02] | At the time, some people blamed meteorologists |
[00:53.50] | for not correctly predicting the path of the storm. |
[00:57.64] | But weather forecasting is extremely difficult, says Ben Kyger. |
[01:03.61] | He is the Director of Central Operations |
[01:06.74] | at NOAA' s National Centers for Environmental Prediction |
[01:11.07] | in College Park, Maryland. |
[01:13.32] | " You' ve got major patterns in the atmosphere, |
[01:16.61] | like the jet stream, |
[01:18.25] | but you' ve also got little eddies, little currents, |
[01:21.33] | little things happening all over the place. |
[01:23.72] | All these little changes are interacting with each other, |
[01:27.31] | continuously, all day long. |
[01:28.55] | So if you look at it from above, from a satellite, |
[01:31.25] | you see the atmosphere moving |
[01:33.04] | and churning in big ways and little ways." |
[01:35.73] | Ben Kyger says oceans are another issue |
[01:39.51] | because they closely interact with the atmosphere |
[01:43.44] | and have a huge effect on storms. |
[01:46.97] | NOAA has spent about 20 million on two new supercomputers, |
[01:53.80] | in an effort to improve the dependability of the forecasts. |
[01:58.93] | " These computers generate the initial model guidance |
[02:02.86] | that the whole forecast process depends on, |
[02:05.50] | for all the weather information that you see, |
[02:08.49] | with snowstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, |
[02:12.17] | how hot it' s going to be today |
[02:14.12] | all of your weather forecasts start |
[02:16.22] | with what comes off of these supercomputers." |
[02:19.51] | It takes a huge amount of computational power |
[02:22.80] | to examine data from weather satellites, |
[02:26.64] | ground stations and other sources. |
[02:30.02] | It then take a lot of power to predict temperature, |
[02:34.16] | air pressure, humidity and wind speed. |
[02:37.99] | But human brains and experience |
[02:41.24] | are still very important to the process. |
[02:44.02] | Meteorologists at the National Centers |
[02:47.71] | for Environmental Prediction scan the same data |
[02:51.74] | that the supercomputers get before issuing a weather report. |
[02:56.24] | " They are looking at lots of different models run of different computers, |
[03:00.73] | and then they are creating that fiveday forecast. |
[03:05.12] | They use lots of scientific and subjective knowledge |
[03:09.01] | from doing it year after year. |
[03:10.85] | They know where the models are strong, where they' re weak |
[03:13.88] | and they give us significantly better forecasts |
[03:16.98] | than the models would do by themselves." |
[03:19.02] | NOAA issues worldwide forecasts every six hours every day of the year. |
[03:26.05] | The reports are free and are helpful for many countries |
[03:32.27] | that cannot afford their own weather service. |
[03:35.85] | NOAA continues working to improve its weatherforecasting abilities, |
[03:40.93] | another upgrade of its weatherpredicting supercomputers |
[03:45.11] | is planed for as earlier as 2015. |
[03:49.39] | And that is the Technology Report from VOA Learning English. |
[03:55.27] | I' m June Simms. |