您现在的位置是:焦點 >>正文
【】
焦點25人已围观
简介If intelligent life beyond Earth (should it exist) could view our planet right now, they might be as ...
If intelligent life beyond Earth (should it exist) could view our planet right now, they might be astonished by the great plume of smoke curling over the ocean.
It's a wild sight, captured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) GOES-West satellite. Potent winds have blown smoke from the historic Western wildfires over 1,000 miles from the coast, into the northern Pacific Ocean. The plume has traveled east too, reaching Mexico. (Hazy skies, from earlier fires, have also been spotted over Europe.)
Record-breaking heat waves, profound record to near-record dryness, and strong winds have allowed massive wildfires to rapidly spread in California, Oregon, and Washington. What's more, millions of dead trees (killed by climate-enhanced drought and bark beetles) along with mismanaged, overcrowded forests have further amplified these blazes.
The resulting smoke has punished Western regions, and in some places turned the daylight into an eerie, dark orange glow. Winds are now blowing bounties of profoundly thick smoke over the Pacific Ocean.

"Running out of adjectives to describe #smoke emitted from Western US wildfires," tweeted NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service Center for Satellite Applications and Research aerosol team, which tracks smoke over the region.
Out over the open ocean, the smoke is now wrapping around a cyclone (a general term for a zone in the atmosphere where winds rotate around an area of low pressure).

Tweet may have been deleted
Tweet may have been deleted
Smoke from massive fires can travel around the globe in about a week. But the largest component of wildfire smoke is invisible. Carbon dioxide (CO2) makes up some 90 percent of wildfire smoke. It lives there for hundreds of years. Critically, CO2 is a potent heat-trapping gas, so while in the atmosphere the newly released gases are contributing to the relentlessly warming climate.
A warmer climate means drier trees, shrubs, and grasses, meaning the vegetation burns much more easily.
"When we talk about how climate enables fire activity, we’re often talking about how dry fuels are," John Abatzoglou, a fire scientist at the University of California, Merced, told Mashable as some of the largest fires in California history burned in late August. "This year is embedded within a long-term uphill climb toward warmer, drier, and smokier climates."
SEE ALSO:The devious fossil fuel propaganda we all useWildfires are not inherently bad. There is good fire. Fires naturally thin overcrowded forests (which decrease the likelihood of future infernos) and maintain healthy ecosystems. For this reason, California and the U.S. Forest Service just committed to thin millions of acres of mismanaged forest.
But still, modern fires are burning in a hotter climate.
Carbon emissions from California blazes are already the highest they've been in the 18-year wildfire satellite record. Five of the largest 20 fires in Golden State history have burned in 2020, so far.
Related Video: Where does smoke go to die in the atmosphere?
Tags:
转载:欢迎各位朋友分享到网络,但转载请说明文章出处“夫榮妻貴網”。http://new.maomao321.com/news/45a2299932.html
相关文章
MashReads Podcast: What makes a good summer read?
焦點Summer is coming to a close and that means one thing -- last-minute vacations!。SEE ALSO:'Ice Cream B ...
【焦點】
阅读更多Twitter users finding hope in 'badass' national parks
焦點In the first few days of the Donald Trump presidency, National Park Service Twitter accounts have em ...
【焦點】
阅读更多Hey Trump! If you MUST tweet from an Android, make it this one
焦點President Trump apparently doesn't care about the security risks of using his old, unsecured Android ...
【焦點】
阅读更多
热门文章
- Australian football makes history with first LGBT Pride Game
- 'The Last Jedi' director shares an exciting peek of the opening crawl
- Turtle funeral makes this boy look like the most thoughtful human on Earth
- This is why you should never, ever leave your phone at work
- Wikipedia co
- This new app is like Instagram for your Lego creations
最新文章
Florida hurricane forecast remains uncertain, but trends in state's favor
Google throws shade at Trump's 'Muslim ban' with a historical Doodle
Feds secretly forced Twitter to disclose a user's identity — twice
These convincing Trump and Kim lookalikes are going viral for obvious reasons
What brands need to know about virtual reality
Of course this novelty 'Final Fantasy' fork is an oversized sword replica