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<p align="center"><font color="#008000"><strong>水下滑翔机——海洋科学家的移动办公室</strong></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#008000"><strong>Gliders Tracking Whale Calls, Ocean Waves </strong></font></p><p align="left"> <font color="#008000">摘要：</font></p><p><!--Element not supported - Type: 8 Name: #comment--><font color="#008000"> 在本周由美国地球物理学会主办的一次双年会上，海洋科学家们介绍说，一种结构轻巧、操作便易、价格经济的水下滑翔机目前正成为研究人员的得力助手，使他们不必离开办公室就可以钻入海里探幽访胜。</font></p><p><font color="#008000"> Ocean scientists can now plunge into the middle of the sea without leaving their offices.</font></p><p> 在本周由美国地球物理学会主办的一次双年会上，海洋科学家们介绍说，一种结构轻巧、操作便易、价格经济的水下滑翔机目前正成为研究人员的得力助手，使他们不必离开办公室就可以钻入海里探幽访胜。 </p><p> 据美联社3月4日报道，美国新泽西州拉特格斯大学海洋和海岸科学中心的斯科菲尔德教授在会上说，这种水下滑翔机的最大特点是重量较轻、价格便宜、便于部署，“具备在水下全天候、持续不断工作的能力”。 </p><p> 这种水下滑翔机长6英尺（1.83米）、重100磅（45.4公斤），依靠吸进、吐出海水改变浮力，并借助侧翼产生水平动力。由于摆脱了螺旋桨或发动机，它可以依靠很少能量安静地在水中“滑翔”，从而靠近观察鲸鱼等各种海洋动物。它装备的电池组能供其在持续一个月的水下航程中全天不间断地搜集信息。无论海面上如何风高浪险，身轻体瘦的它都能“忠实”地将包括鲸鱼的情话、大浪的轰响等声音数据统统汇报给研究人员。 </p><p> 目前，这种可以反复使用的水下考察工具的售价为2.5万美元，但租用一条考察船的最高花费一天就达1.5万美元。斯科菲尔德教授说，5年以前很少有美国科研机构拥有这类水下考察工具，而如今美国全国有15个实验室都大量借助它从事研究工作，它的身影已从新泽西海岸拓展到了遥远的地中海。 </p><p> 去年早些时候，来自拉特格斯大学、哥伦比亚大学和麻省波士顿大学的25名科学家操纵一架水下滑翔机从纽约市哈得孙河入海口处溯流而上，耗时两周调查通过河口的印染废料是如何污染邻近的大西洋海域的。 </p><p> 水下滑翔机对于研究鲸鱼等海洋哺乳动物的科学家而言也很有用处。以往观察鲸鱼的人是站在船上通过高倍望远镜守候鲸鱼露出水面，这种方法不仅需要耗费大量人力财力，而且还得企盼天公作美风平浪静才行。斯科菲尔德说，现阶段，科学家们利用水下滑翔机获得的情报，就可以预先确定进行实地观察的合适时机和地点。不仅如此，随着技术的发展，未来水下滑翔机获得的数据将与卫星、雷达信息相结合，共同描绘出关于神秘大洋的三维图景，为更多痴迷于探索海洋的人们打开方便之门。 </p><p> Ocean scientists can now plunge into the middle of the sea without leaving their offices. Six-foot, 100-pound underwater gliders are swimming the oceans of the world and dutifully sending data home on everything from whale calls to the massive waves produced by hurricanes. </p><p> Several ocean scientists reported on the use of underwater gliders at the biannual ocean sciences meeting this week sponsored by the American Geophysical Union. </p><p> "The ability to be in the ocean all the time and do it over a sustained period — people are doing it now," said Oscar Schofield, professor at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Science at Rutgers University. </p><p> The gliders suck in and shoot out water to change their buoyancy and move up and down. Small wings on their missile-like bodies create lift to move horizontally. </p><p> Without a noisy propeller or engine, the gliders run silently and on very little power. A small battery pack can keep them gathering information 24 hours a day on monthlong missions. </p><p> They can also be programmed to surface and send data to land-based labs via satellite. </p><p> And while the cost for a large research vessel can mount up at $15,000 per day, a single, reusable glider costs about $25,000. </p><p> Five years ago very few scientific labs had even one of the gliders. Today, as many as 15 labs across the country have up to 20 each to deploy on projects from the Mediterranean Sea to just off the New Jersey coast, Schofield said. </p><p> In October, scientists on the North Carolina coastline used a glider called Pelagia, from the Greek word for "open ocean," to gather data on physical and biological changes beneath the waves a few miles off Wrightsville Beach. </p><p> Earlier last year, two ships and 25 scientists from Rutgers, Columbia University and the University of Massachusetts-Boston used an underwater glider to follow two dye releases from the mouth of the Hudson River over two weeks. The project followed pollutants and other material discharged from the river to see how it interacts with the Atlantic Ocean. </p><p> Relatively light, easy to deploy and inexpensive, the gliders are not subject to violent surface conditions and have the ability to meander among sea creatures and ply the oceans in any weather, including hurricanes. </p><p> Mark Baumgartner, a scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, uses the gliders to observe whales. </p><p> The standard technique for watching the mammals involves using high-powered binoculars from the deck of a ship to spot them as they surface for air. But this method requires a lot of people and money, and is limited to times when conditions are clear, bright and calm. </p><p> "Some days when it's good daylight but heavy seas, this becomes a very nauseating process to look through very large binoculars through a rolling ship," Baumgartner said. </p><p> In May, Baumgartner's team used a glider to capture the soulful calls of a humpback whale off the coast of Cape Cod, despite a storm that whipped up 17 foot seas and more than 30 knot winds during the five-day project. </p><p> In the future, information from the gliders will likely be combined with data from other technologies, such as satellites and radar, to create three-dimensional views of the ocean, Schofield said. </p><p> For now, the gliders can help scientists better narrow down and target when and where they need to actually board a ship to get the information they want, he said. </p><p> "The big push ... now that they're starting to demonstrate their capabilities is to start getting them out there to be a permanent presence in the ocean," he said. （何晓鸿）</p> |
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