科学家警告史上最强太阳风暴将来袭

Solar storms could have 'devastating effects' on human technology when they hit a peak in two years' time, a leading scientist has warned. 相关领域的权威科学家警告，在两年之后的2013年将爆发一场强度极高的太阳风暴，届时地球上人类的科技与通讯将遭受到严重的影响。

U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assistant secretary Kathryn Sullivan said the storms pose a growing threat to critical infrastructure such as satellite communications, navigation systems and electrical transmission equipment.

美国国家海洋与大气管理局副局长Kathryn Sullivan表示，这场强烈的太阳风暴将对一些封场关键的基础设施造成日益严重的危险，这其中包括了通信卫星、导航系统和电力传输设备。

Solar storms release particles that can temporarily disable or permanently destroy fragile computer circuits.

太阳风暴所释放出的例子将对脆弱的计算机电路造成暂时性的失灵或者永久性的破坏。

Dr Sullivan, a former Nasa astronaut who in 1984 became the first woman to walk in space, yesterday told a UN weather conference in Geneva that 'it is not a question of if, but really a matter of when a major solar event could hit our planet'.

Sullivan博士在1984年参与了挑战号的风行任务，并称为了历史上第一位实现太空行走的女性，在昨天的联合国气候大会上，她表示：“太阳风暴已不再是个疑问了，这是个实实在在存在的问题，我们需要做的是确定将在何时发生强烈的太阳风暴。”

She is not the only expert to issue a warning about the threat posed by solar storms.

而Sullivan也并非是为一个警告了太阳风暴或造成严重影响的学者专家。

In February, astronomers warned that mankind is now more vulnerable to such an event than at any time in history - and that the planet should prepare for a global Hurricane Katrina-style disaster.

在今年二月份时，有多名天文学家都警告称，人类现在要比历史的任何一个时候都更加脆弱，面对太阳风暴，我们必须做好万全准备，以应对这一场全球性的卡特里娜飓风灾难。

A massive eruption of the sun would save waves of radiation and charged particles to Earth, damaging the satellite systems used for synchronising computers, airline navigation and phone networks.

在大规模的太阳风暴爆发时，太阳将向地球释放大量的射线与带电粒子，人造卫星将遭到破坏，通行将被中断，并引发飞机航班停飞，全球的电话通行网络也将受到影响。

If the storm is powerful enough it could even crash stock markets and cause power cuts that last weeks or months, experts told the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

若太阳风暴为例过于强大，这甚至会引发全球股市下挫，电力供应告急，时间将持续数周或者数个月。

The chances of a disruption from space are getting stronger because the sun is entering the most active period of its 11 to 12-year natural cycle.The world got a taster of the sun's explosive power in February when the strongest solar eruption in five years sent a torrent of charged plasma hurtling towards the world at 580 miles per second.

由于太阳正逐渐进入活跃时期，太阳黑子的活动周期为11年到12年。地球在今年二月份时遭到了五年之后最强的太阳爆发的干扰，等离子的洪流以每秒580英里的速度向人类世界奔驰而来。

The storm created spectacular aurorae and disrupted radio communications.

这次的太阳风暴造成了壮观的激光，以及对于无线通讯的干扰。

The last solar maximum occurred in 2001. Its latest minimum was particularly weak and long lasting.

最近一次的大规模风暴发生在2001年，其最新一次的爆发量很少，但持续时间却很长。

Space storms are not new. The first major solar flare was recorded by British astronomer Richard Carrington in 1859.

太空风暴并不是什么新鲜事物，第一次太阳耀斑爆发的记录是在1859年由英国的天文科学家理查德·卡林顿记录下来的。

Other solar geomagnetic storms have been observed in recent decades. One huge solar flare in 1972 cut off long-distance telephone communication in the mid-western state of Illinois, Nasa said.

近几十年来，人类也观测记录到了几次太阳磁暴现象，1972的太阳耀斑使得美国伊利诺伊中西部无线通讯几近瘫痪。