The most powerful storms on our planet have grown substantially stronger, and almost forty years' worth of hurricane satellite imagery suggest a warming planet might be fuelling the changes.

全球最強(qiáng)風(fēng)暴變得更強(qiáng)了，近四十年的颶風(fēng)衛(wèi)星圖像顯示，地球變暖可能加劇了這一變化。

According to the data, the likelihood of a hurricane developing into a category 3 storm or greater, with sustained winds of over 177 kilometres per hour (110 miles per hour), has increased by about 8 percent every decade since 1979.

數(shù)據(jù)顯示，1979年以來，颶風(fēng)發(fā)展成持續(xù)風(fēng)速超過每小時177公里(每小時110英里)的3級或更強(qiáng)風(fēng)暴的可能性每十年就增加約8%。

"Our results show that these storms have become stronger on global and regional levels, which is consistent with expectations of how hurricanes respond to a warming world," says climate scientist James Kossin from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

美國海洋及大氣管理局氣候科學(xué)家James Kossin說：“結(jié)果表明這些風(fēng)暴在全球和地區(qū)層面都有所加強(qiáng)，這符合全球變暖條件下颶風(fēng)的變化”。

Climate researchers have long suspected there would be an increase in stronger hurricanes, since warmer ocean temperatures and added moisture in the atmosphere tend to energise these storms.

氣候研究人員一直懷疑更強(qiáng)颶風(fēng)會增多，因為海洋溫度上升，大氣中水分增加，這些因素會激發(fā)風(fēng)暴。

Real-world data, however, has been trickier to come by. Hurricanes – also known as tropical cyclones and typhoons, depending on where they originate – only appear sporadically, and can be difficult to study. Plus, these storms are often ignored if they don't directly impact upon on humans.

但現(xiàn)實中的數(shù)據(jù)更難獲得。颶風(fēng)又被稱為熱帶氣旋和臺風(fēng)，名字不同是因為發(fā)生地不同。颶風(fēng)只是偶爾出現(xiàn)，很難研究。而且這些風(fēng)暴如果沒有對人類產(chǎn)生直接影響，通常會被忽視。

"The main hurdle we have for finding trends is that the data are collected using the best technology at the time," says Kossin.

Kossin說：“我們了解發(fā)展颶風(fēng)趨勢的主要障礙是搜集數(shù)據(jù)使用的都是當(dāng)時最好的技術(shù)�！�

"Every year the data are a bit different than last year, each new satellite has new tools and captures data in different ways, so in the end we have a patchwork quilt of all the satellite data that have been woven together."

“每年的數(shù)據(jù)都和前一年有點差異，每個新的衛(wèi)星都有新的工具，獲取數(shù)據(jù)的方式也不同。所以，最終我們把所有的衛(wèi)星數(shù)據(jù)拼湊在一起。”

Thanks to computers though, which can help us to interpret satellite images of storms around the world, the team has now shown that from 1979 to 2017 there was a detectable trend toward stronger hurricanes – and this matches up consistently with greenhouse warming simulations.

但是多虧了計算機(jī)，它們能幫助我們解讀全球風(fēng)暴的衛(wèi)星圖像，該團(tuán)隊表示從1979年到2017年有明顯的颶風(fēng)變強(qiáng)的趨勢，這一直與溫室效應(yīng)模擬相一致。