大自然的魔法_天空中的奇观.doc

大自然的魔法 天空中的奇观关于云之飘逸变幻，唐朝诗人皎然有诗曰：舒卷意何穷，萦流复带空。有形不累物，无迹去随风。莫怪长相逐，飘然与我同。漂浮在空中的标本 从左至右分别是，东南亚的层积云；冰岛低垂的层云；澳洲昆士兰北部天空中被称之为晨曦的卷云；内华达与加州边界上空的高积荚状云。By CORNELIA DEAN浮云是大气制造的“魔法”，它们转瞬即逝而且不断变化。当然，它们无法被收集并存储。不过，我们根本无需什么特定装置去收集浮云：你只要注视它，然后记录下来就可以了。Hence “The Cloud Collectors Handbook,” published by Chronicle Books, a serious yet charming field guide to clouds. The book teaches readers how to identify clouds they have seen and gives them a place to record the sightings, just the way birders create life lists of the birds they have spotted. It even has a scoring system, in which cloudspotters receive 10 points for ordinary clouds like nimbostratus, the more or less featureless rain clouds people typically have in mind when they say clouds are depressing; 40 points for a cumulonimbus storm cloud, the anvil-shaped “king of clouds”; and more points for more exotic formations.Mr. Pretor-Pinney resists the idea that cloudspotting is merely funny, or even merely fun. Instead, he said, its a way of training yourself to be aware of the natural world, “of being receptive when something is happening in the sky and noticing it.”Clouds are an important and necessary part of our environment, he notes, and anyway an endless succession of cloudless days would be boring. So Mr. Pretor-Pinney has little patience for people who dream of sunnier climes when clouds fill the sky.云彩是自然环境重要且必要的组成部分，没完没了的晴朗少云天气总会让人感到厌倦。 在日常环境中发现美好，对周遭的一切产生兴奋之情或变得兴趣盎然，并在其中找到自我，这才是幸福感的真正源头。Up in the Clouds相关图集：云卷云舒Stratocumulus. Due to its sun-blocking tendencies, stratocumulus may not be the most popular cloud, but it is one of the most varied.” The most widespread of all cloud types, it typically forms in a low layer with a clumpy base.层积云。“因为经常遮蔽阳光的缘故，所以层积云可能并不是最受欢迎的云彩，但它却是最富于变化的云彩之一。”作为分布最广的云彩之一，层积云通常形成于大气低层，云层底部呈块状。Credit: Ruzuiana Mohd Mokhtar图片来源：Ruzuiana Mohd MokhtarStratus. These low-lying clouds “can give you a strangely claustrophobic feeling.” When a stratus cloud forms at a very low level, it is called fog or mist.层云。这种低垂的云彩“会让你产生一种奇特的幽闭感。”当层云在很低的水平面形成时，它通常被称作雾气。Credit: Michele Gruber图片来源：Michele GruberVirga. When a cloud starts producing rain or snow, but none of it reaches the ground, the result is a virga. Because trails hang down from a clumpy cloud, virgas are known as jellyfish tails.幡状云。云彩制造的雨雪没有落到地面上就会产生幡状云，它相当于大块乌云下垂的痕迹，因此幡状云也被称之为水母尾云。Cumulonimbus. “The king of clouds” is an enormous storm cloud. If you look at it from below, all you see is its dark, ragged underside. Seen from a distance, the cloud has a distinctive anvil shape. “No cloud collection is complete” without one.积雨云。这种“云彩之王”实际上是一团巨大的暴雨云，如果从下方观察，你会发现它显得漆黑，而且阴暗部分参差不齐；但若是从远处观察，积雨云会呈现出明显的铁砧形。缺少积雨云的云彩分类就谈不上完整。Credit: Mick Ohrberg图片来源：Mick OhrbergAltocumulus lenticularis. Altocumulus clouds are typically layers or patches of cloudlets, and in the lenticularis variety they are candidates for “weirdest looking clouds in the sky.” Though they often look like flying saucers, their name comes from the Latin word for lentil, possibly because whoever named them “could not think of thefor shaped like a UFO.”高积荚状云。高积云一般是成层或成块的朵云，高积云中的荚状云堪称是“天空中外观最为奇特的云彩。”虽然看起来很像是飞碟，但它们的学名却是来自于扁豆的拉丁文，这可能是因为给它们命名的人“没办法找到飞碟形状这样的拉丁单词。”Credit: Ryan Verwest图片来源：Ryan VerwestMamma. Mammas are supplementary features of clouds, and they hang below them like udders. Some call them a sign of bad weather coming in. There are competing theories as to how they form.乳房云。乳房云是普通云彩的补充特征，因为它们就像乳房一样悬挂在云层下方。有人认为它们是恶劣天气即将来临的标志，事实上关于乳房云的形成原因，现在依然存在几种相互对立的理论。Credit: John Rowlands图片来源：John RowlandsCirrostratus fibratus. When the wind draws ice-crystal clouds into long, fine filaments, they are called fibratus. In this case, shifting winds have formed a cirrostratus fibratus cloud into a herringbone pattern.卷层毛状云。当风将含有冰晶的云朵吹成长长的细丝状时，毛状云便形成了。图中，不断变换的风向使得一团卷层毛状云变幻成人字形图案。Credit: Anne Burgess图片来源：Anne BurgessCap. Caps, an example of lenticularis clouds, typically form at mountaintops. Sometimes a cap is small and sometimes, like this, “it splays out in a full mother-in-law-at-the-wedding extravaganza.” But dont confuse them with a simple stratus cloud clinging to a mountaintop. “Only a jaunty cloud hat” will do.帽云。帽云是毛状云的一种个例，它通常成形于山顶，其大小多变，例如上图中延展幅度极大的帽云“就如同是婚礼表演上滑稽岳母的装饰一般。”但不要将它与依附在山顶的简单层云弄混淆了，因为它看上起就像是一顶让人觉得欣喜的云帽。Credit: Ryan Verwest图片来源：Ryan VerwestRoll cloud. A roll cloud is “a long, low tube of a cloud,” sometimes smooth, sometimes bumpy. This one, called Morning Glory, forms regularly in northern Queensland, Australia.卷云。卷云是“一种低矮的长管形云彩，”它时而平滑，时而臃肿。上图中的卷云被称之为晨曦，它会定期形成于澳洲昆士兰的北部地区。Credit: Gavin Pretor-Pinney图片来源：Gavin Pretor-PinneyAltocumulus lacunosus. “An elusive prize for any cloud collector,” lacunosus clouds form when sinking pockets of air create holes in a cloud layer.高积网状云。“对于所有的观云爱好者来说，能欣赏到这种难以捉摸的云彩无异于恩赐，”当下沉的气团在云层中形成空洞时，网状云便出现了。Credit: Kate Brookes图片来源：Kate BrookesIridescence. When sunlight or moonlight passes through a layer of thin clouds, the result can be iridescence. Iridescence is proof that not every cloud has a silver lining “some have tutti-frutti-colored ones.”虹彩。阳光或月光穿过薄薄的云层就会形成虹彩。虹彩的存在证明了不是所有的云朵都有银色的衬边“有些云彩的衬边是五颜六色的。”Credit: Hong Gyo Cho图片来源：Hong Gyo ChoPileus. It might look like “a Donald Trump comb-over” of a cloud, but cloud collectors consider the pileus formation one of the most beautiful. Unfortunately, “it never hangs around for long.”伞云。伞云看起来就像是“真人秀节目飞黄腾达中唐纳德特朗普（Donald Trump）的经典发型，”但观云爱好者认为伞云是造型最为惊艳的云彩之一。不幸的是，“它存在的时间不长。”Credit: Sandra Malone图片来源：Sandra MaloneCrepuscular rays. These appear when sunlight strikes tiny particles too scanty to appear as clouds. Though the rays appear to be emanating from the cloud, that is an optical illusion.云隙光。当阳光照射到稀疏得如同云彩一般的微小颗粒上，云隙光便随之出现。虽然乍看上去，光线似乎是由云层发出的，但实际上这只是一种光学假象。Credit: John MacPherson图片来源：John MacPherson22 Halo. This kind of halo can form by sunlight passing through ice crystals in thin layers of high clouds. Use caution in observing or photographing halos; looking di