NASA通過兩分半鐘的影像展示20年間地球的氣候變化

NASA captured 20 years of changing seasons in a striking new global map of the home planet.

美國國家航空航天局（NASA）在一幅新的全球地圖上捕捉到了20年來的季節變化。

The data visualization shows Earth's fluctuations as seen from space.

這一可視化數據展示了在太空中看到的地球的波動變化。

The polar ice caps and snow cover are shown ebbing and flowing with the seasons. The varying ocean shades of blue, green, red and purple depict the abundance - or lack - of undersea life.

顯而易見，極地冰蓋和積雪都隨季節的變化而變化。藍色、綠色、紅色和紫色的不同海洋陰影，描繪了海底世界的豐富或缺乏。

"It's like watching the Earth breathe. It's really remarkable," said NASA oceanographer Jeremy Werdell, who took part in the project.

參與了這一項目的NASA海洋學者傑里米·維爾德爾表示：“這就像是在看地球呼吸，這真的很了不起。”

Two decades- from September 1997 to this past September - are crunched into 2.5 minutes of viewing.

從1997年9月到今年9月的這二十年，被壓縮爲這兩分半鐘的影像。

Werdell finds the imagery mesmerizing. "It's like all of my senses are being transported into space, and then you can compress time and rewind it, and just continually watch this kind of visualization," he said.

維爾德爾稱，這段影像太令人着迷了。他說：“就像把我所有感受傳輸至宇宙中，然後你可以隨意快進、倒帶，並反覆地觀看這種可視化的過程。”

Werdell said the visualization shows spring coming earlier and autumn lasting longer in the Northern Hemisphere. Also noticeable to him is the receding of the Arctic ice caps over time - and, though less obvious, the Antarctic, too.

維爾德爾表示，圖像顯示北半球的春天來得越來越早，秋天變得更長。同樣值得注意的是，北極的冰蓋正在慢慢消融，南極也是這個情況，雖然不太明顯。

On the sea side, Werdell was struck by "this hugely productive bloom of biology" that exploded in the Pacific along the equator from 1997 to 1998 -- when a water-warming El Nino merged into cooling La Nina. This algae bloom is evident by a line of bright green.

在海洋方面，“這一巨大的生物繁榮”讓維爾德爾大爲震驚--從1997年到1998年，在赤道附近的太平洋突然爆發--當時的厄爾尼諾暖流與拉尼娜寒流相融合。通過那一條顯眼的綠帶很明顯的看出海藻的猛增。

In considerably smaller Lake Erie, more and more contaminating algae blooms are apparent - appearing red and yellow.

相對規模較小的伊利湖，其越來越多的污染藻類的大量繁殖顯而易見，呈現出紅色和黃色。

All this data can provide resources for policymakers as well as commercial fishermen and many others, according to Werdell.

維爾德爾認爲，這些數據可以給政策制定者、商業捕魚者以及其他人提供一些信息。