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  3. As another active hurricane season in the Atlantic winds down, some atmospheric scientists say they have the tools to stop or sl

As another active hurricane season in the Atlantic winds down, some atmospheric scientists say they have the tools to stop or sl

admin2012-07-05  77
问题     As another active hurricane season in the Atlantic winds down, some atmospheric scientists say they have the tools to stop or slow the powerful storms. Their efforts, however, are hampered by a lack of funding and tricky legal issues.
    Until recently, the US Department of Homeland Security has been investigating whether seeding storm clouds with pollution-size aerosols (particles suspended in gas) might help slow tropical cyclones. Computer models suggest that deploying (散开) aerosols can have "an appreciable impact on tropical cyclone intensity," writes William Cotton, an atmospheric scientist at Colorado State University. He and his colleagues recently reviewed such work in the Journal of Weather Modification. In fact, human pollution may already be weakening storms, including August’s Hurricane Irene. "Computer models all predicted that the intensity of Irene would be much greater than it was," Cotton notes.
    Other would-be storm stoppers, including Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, have focused on feeding cold water to the hot storms to slow their momentum. The Gates-backed plan proposes using a fleet of wave-powered rafts to spread the colder ocean water pumped up from the depths in the path of an onrushing storm. The trouble with that process is that it could prove unwieldy (难操纵的). It would require hundreds of devices, and because storms are so difficult to track, placing them would be a challenge. Moreover, would dispelling storms with cold water be a good idea? Tropical cyclones, for all their destructive force, arc one of the planet’s ways of redistributing heat from the tropics to the poles. Shutting that down might have unforeseen consequences, and shifting a storm’s course could cause punitive action from people in the new path, as a team of engineers, public policy experts and atmospheric scientists wrote in Environmental Science and Technology in April.
    Regardless, for all their power, tropical cyclones are sensitive. To exploit that sensitivity, scientists would need accurate information on a storm’s future course, says meteorologist Ross Hoffman of Atmospheric and Environmental Research. But the US government is cutting funding for the satellites that make such tracking and prediction possible. For now flood maps and evacuation (疏散) plans remain our best protection.
What do we know about the study of pollution-size aerosols to slow the powerful storms?
选项 A、It has proved to be very effective in stopping tropical cyclones.
B、It has received consistent funding from the federal government.
C、It is still at the experimental stage and has not been put into practice.
D、It can cause great damage to our atmosphere according to computer models.
答案C
解析 推理判断题。根据定位句可知，美国国土安全部正在对将气溶胶撒到暴风云里以减缓热带气旋的方案进行审查。同时从下文可知，计算机模型也在对这一方案的有效性进行预测。由此可以推断，使用气溶胶减缓暴风的方案还在实验论证阶段，故正确答案为C)“该研究仍然处在实验阶段，并没有投人实际应用”。
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