Вы услышите интервью. В следующих заданиях выберите правильный ответ.
1. What is the International Polar Year?
1) It lasts for about a year.
2) It is a programme of scientific research.
3) It happens every 50 years.
2. Why do scientists study the Arctic?
1) It is a very clean region.
2) It is a rather polluted region.
3) This region is getting polluted nowadays.
3. Why do scientists not use satellites to get necessary data?
1) The satellites can’t carry out detailed observations.
2) They only provide a long-term view of things.
3) They don’t measure things.
4. Why are scientists going to look at the Arctic haze?
1) They are worried about an unprecedented loss of Arctic ice.
2) They want to study components that come from pollution.
3) They are interested in atmospheric contribution to climate change.
5. Why is ozone so important for studying climate change?
1) It is emitted by pollution.
2) It is created by the chemistry of pollutants.
3) It is the most recognizable greenhouse gas.
6. What makes the ARCTAS mission really important?
1) The interest why the snow and ice are melting.
2) The fact that the black carbon hastens the melt season.
3) The necessity to study the black carbon.
7. What is Doctor Dibb’s field of study?
1) He studies how the air comes to Greenland.
2) He carries out ice core analyses.
3) He examines snow and air samples Ответ:
1 – 2
2 – 3
3 – 1
4 – 3
5 – 2
6 – 3
7 – 3
Question: Doctor Dibb, what is ARCTAS?
Answer: ARCTAS stands for the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites. It is part of the activities that are going on under the umbrella of the International Polar Year about every 40 or 50 years. 2008 and 2009 are two of those years when this is occurring after the last ones were in the 50’s. This is the time when the international community comes together and focuses on polar aspects.
Question: Why should we study the Arctic?
Answer: It’s generally a very clean region because nobody or very few people actually live there, but there’s a lot of pollution that is imported into those areas and transported there. So our main goal is to see how it is getting transported, where it is coming from and what impact it might have on the regional climate in the arctic region.
Question: Why don’t you use satellites to get this data?
Answer: The satellites do a good job of staying there for several years so they do provide us a longterm view of things. They also cover a lot of territory so they are more global in nature, but they don’t do a very good job in terms of the details. They don’t measure a lot of things that we need to know in order to understand the system, in order to be able to model it and to forecast or predict the changes in the future. So a lot of detailed observations we will be doing using airborne platforms are really not possible from satellites. But there is a second aspect. Things that are measurable from satellites require a lot of validation, because a satellite is really an indirect measure of things.
Question: How does this study relate to climate change?
Answer: Given the recent loss of Arctic ice in 2007, which was unprecedented, this is a fortuitous time for us to be here looking at climate change in the Arctic. We’re particularly interested in the atmospheric contribution to that so in the spring we’re looking at what is traditionally been described as Arctic haze. Besides, this Arctic haze has components that come from pollution transport from midlatitude locations such as North America, Europe and Siberia.
Question: So, are you looking at how carbon dioxide is related to climate change?
Answer: We’re not only looking at carbon dioxide, which is the most recognizable greenhouse gas, but also at methane, and CFC’s and ozone, even more importantly. Ozone is a greenhouse gas that’s not emitted by pollution but is created by the chemistry of pollutants as they’re transported to the Arctic. Trying to understand those things is an important part of this campaign.
Question: What recent changes in the Arctic have made the ARCTAS mission really important?
Answer: One of the things that has been of great interest in the last few years is why the snow and ice are now melting earlier in the year and freezing up later and, clearly, the air is a little warmer. There’s also speculation that the dirt and the black carbon that is in the Arctic haze that’s deposited just as the sun is coming up may actually change the reflection of the snow and hasten the melt season. So where is this black carbon coming from? Is it increasing or decreasing over time? And does it have a measurable effect on the reflection of the white surface as we come out of the winter in the Arctic? These questions are a major motivation behind ARCTAS.
Question: What is your field of study and how does it relate to the ARCTAS mission?
Answer: We have a lot of similar issues, like where the air comes from that gets to a place like Greenland and how it gets out of the atmosphere, and onto the ground. Recently we’ve discovered that there’s very active processing of the snow. When the sun shines on the snow, a lot of complicated chemistry happens that nobody knew about 10 years ago. I’m actually studying snow and air samples in Greenland to better understand ice core analyses that have been done by other folks in our group and in other areas of the world.
