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Scientists are developing unmanned planes -- called drones -- that can gather weather information from the atmosphere.
科学家们正在研发能够从大气层收集气象信息的无人机。
The drones could help weather experts improve their predictions.
此类无人机能够帮助气象专家提高预测水平。
Meteorologists say their weather forecasts would be more accurate if they had information from many parts of the atmosphere. They already place satellites, drones and balloons at different altitudes.And they use radar and gather information from devices on towers.
气象学者表示如果能够获得大气层众多部分的信息，那么其天气预测水平就会更加精确。他们已经在不同纬度放置了卫星、无人机和气球。他们使用雷达从观测塔设备上收集信息。
But that information only helps experts predict weather conditions for the next few days.It does not help predict changes in the next few hours.This is very important where sudden, violent storms happen.
但这类信息只能帮助专家们预测接下来几天的天气状况。并不能预测接下来几小时的天气变化。接下来几小时的天气变化对预测突发性猛烈的暴风雨来说非常重要。
So scientists at Oklahoma State University are developing new drones to gather information from more parts of the Earth's atmosphere. This will help forecasters improve predictions about local weather conditions.
因此，俄克拉荷马州立大学正在研制新型无人机，从地球大气层更多地方收集信息。这有助于预测员提高预测当地气候条件的准确率。
Jamey Jacob is an aerospace engineer and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Oklahoma State University. He leads the university's Unmanned Systems Research Institute.
杰米·雅各布是一名航空工程师，也是俄克拉荷马州立大学机械与航天工程的教授。他是该校无人系统研究所所长。
He and other scientists at the university are developing small drones that do not cost a lot of money but can fly for hours, gathering information from many atmospheric levels. He spoke to VOA on Skype.
杰米·雅各布与学校里的其他科学家正在开发一些小型无人机，这些无人机花费较少，但能够持续飞行数小时，收集不同高度大气层的信息。他通过Skype接受了VOA的采访。
"Oklahoma is a really good, good example.Oklahoma only has two balloon launches a day -- one at dawn and one at dusk -- from a single location in the state, and that's where all the weather forecasting information comes from.So that data is really sparse, and it's difficult for meteorologists that are developing these forecasting models to get a very good idea about how that weather is changing from these very limited number of data points."
"俄克拉荷马是个非常非常好的例子。俄克拉荷马每天在该州某一个地点发射两只气球黎明一只，傍晚一只，所有天气预报信息皆来源于此。因此这个数据真的很少，对于开发预测模型的气象学者来说，要想根据这些有限的数据了解气候变化的方式，是非常难的。”
Phillip Chilson is a professor of meteorology at Oklahoma State University.He says the drone program should give researchers a low-cost way of understanding storms better, and improve computer-based forecasting.
菲利普·奇尔森是俄克拉荷马州立大学的气象学教授。他表示该无人机项目能够为研究人员提供一种低廉的方式更好地了解暴风雨，提高基于计算机的预测水平。
The scientists have developed a round drone that can fly, hover, roll on the ground and then take off again.These abilities are needed for a drone to fly in storms.
科学家们已经开发了一个圆形的无人机，可飞行，可盘旋，可在地上滚动然后再次起飞。无人机要想在暴风雨中飞行就必须具备这些能力。
Professor Chilson says the drone can measure atmospheric conditions, send live video to forecasters, and help search for people hurt in storms.He spoke to VOA on Skype.
奇尔森教授表示无人机可以估量大气条件，向预报员发送现场视频，帮助搜寻暴风雨中的伤员。他通过Skype接受了VOA的采访。
"Our real goal is to try to develop systems that really, I don't want to say replace but there may be that possibility of replacing weather balloons."
"我们真正的目标在于开发一些系统，我不想说它能够取代气球，但确实有取代的可能。
Researchers say they still have a lot of work to do before the drones are ready.That includes making sure the drones know how to stay away from other planes.They say it could be two years until a drone can safely examine Earth's lower atmosphere.
研究人员表示在无人机准备就绪之前还有很多工作要做。其中包括确保无人机能够躲开其他飞机。他们表示要想无人机能够安全监测地球底层大气，还要两年时间。
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