Is it necessary for the Meteorological Bureau to exist?
The film is adapted from a short story of the same name published by science fiction writer Liu in 2000. As a work of "popularization of hard science", Da Liu contains a lot of scientific knowledge or hypotheses based on existing scientific cognition in its unconstrained worldview setting.
We might as well open a "brain hole"
imagine
During the 2,500 years of escaping from the solar system,
Will the Meteorological Bureau still exist-
0 1
Will the weather bureau close when the earth wanders?
Directly reveal the answer: the meteorological bureau will not only exist, but also be very important.
First of all, let's take a look at the world view setting of the novel The Wandering Earth-
More than three centuries ago, astrophysicists found that the speed at which hydrogen in the sun was converted into helium suddenly increased. Scientists judge that within 400 years, the sun will have a violent explosion called "helium flash". After that, the sun will become a huge and dim red giant. Helium flash will engulf the entire solar system, and planets including the earth will be vaporized.
So, why escape from the solar system with the earth? The novel also describes the argument between the "spaceship school" who advocates building giant spaceships and the "Earth school" who advocates pushing the earth out of the solar system.
The conclusion is that it is 850 light years away from the nearest star with planets, and the spacecraft needs to travel for 654.38+0.7 million years. No matter how big the spacecraft is, it is impossible to maintain such a huge ecosystem for so long. However, it takes only 2500 years to push the earth with a complete ecosystem out of the solar system and find proxima centauri Centauri, which is only light years away from the earth, 100 generations. Resources on the earth (such as rocks needed for heavy element fusion and oxygen contained underground). ) is enough to support this voyage.
Then the problem is coming. The energy source of the weather and climate system we are familiar with now is the light and heat emitted by the sun. In the era of vagrancy, why should the meteorological agency be retained for the Coalition government that needs to concentrate resources to "do great things"?
02
Safety is the first rule of meteorology.
To escape from the solar system, people first used planetary engines to stop the rotation of the earth in the "braking age".
In the novel, the earth "braked" for 42 years. After stopping rotation, the eastern and western hemispheres will be in eternal day or dusk for a long time (not at night, because the earth engine will emit huge light).
The novel describes it like this: "The era of braking has just ended, and its impact on the earth has been shocking. The tides caused by the acceleration of the earth's engine have swallowed up two-thirds of the big cities in the northern hemisphere, and the global high temperature brought by the engine has melted the polar glaciers, making this flood worse. " The familiar seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter no longer exist. Therefore, it is considered that in the "braking era", the climate prediction business of meteorological departments should be temporarily cancelled.
However, due to the gradual stop of rotation and the extreme heat brought by the earth's engine, the weather on the earth began to deteriorate extremely. The novel mentioned: "The outdoor temperature is as high as 70-80 degrees Celsius, so you must wear a cooling suit when you go out. There are often heavy rains at such temperatures, and the scene where the engine beam passes through the dark clouds is a nightmare. " Many people died because they were caught in the rain baked at high temperature.
In the "braking age", most humans still need to live on the surface. At that time, a rainfall was a "catastrophe" that directly threatened people's lives. During this period, the Meteorological Bureau has a great responsibility to make timely forecast and early warning of sudden heavy rainfall.
Simple analysis, the monsoon will disappear as the earth stops rotating; Coastal areas often have hundreds of meters of waves, which are basically uninhabitable areas. Then, the main energy source of these threatening rainfall atmospheric activities is the heat generated by the engine.
This kind of rainfall is similar to the convective rainfall that often occurs in summer afternoons. In our time, this weather phenomenon with small spatial scale and intense short-term atmospheric activity is the difficulty of forecasting. However, in the "braking era", it is believed that with the improvement of numerical forecasting technology, accurate forecasting will be expected to be realized.
The only thing people have to do is to strictly follow the travel tips given by the meteorological department. The so-called: "Safety is ten million, meteorology comes first; The forecast is not remembered, and relatives cry. "
03
Provide meteorological support for accelerating escape.
After the "braking era" ended, the earth entered the "escape era". People will start the earth engine at full power, accelerate the escape speed of the earth and fly out of the solar system.
The film selects the story that happened in the "escape era", when the earth threw itself into outer space with the help of Jupiter's gravity. However, before reaching Jupiter, the earth still needs to orbit the sun 15 times-the so-called "orbital acceleration" stage.
During this period, the surface environment deteriorated seriously, and people moved into underground cities to live. The ecosystem of the underground city is artificially simulated. Humans simulate natural light, extract oxygen from soil, and make the air needed for life.
Underground cities naturally have no rain, shine, snow and seasonal changes. There seems to be no need for the Meteorological Bureau to exist!
But at this time, although the meteorological conditions on the surface have deteriorated more seriously, human activities on the surface have not stopped. Their demand for meteorological information services has not decreased at all. For example, people also need to transport fuel for the earth engine; There should also be material exchange between underground cities. Han Ziang, the "grandfather" in the film, is such a transport driver.
In the process of orbit change and acceleration, the earth's orbit around the sun is becoming more and more "flat". Every time we reach the apohelion, the earth will be farther away from the sun. Therefore, at apohelion, most parts of the surface will encounter extreme cold and the air will be thinner. The meteorological department should do a good job of departmental linkage and closely monitor whether there are avalanches and other disasters near the earth engine.
And whenever the earth drives to the perihelion, "weeds drill out of the ground in a large area on the barren land for a long time, all kinds of flowers compete to open, and young leaves cover the dead forest with green clothes." During this time, the surface climate is more suitable, and many underground city residents will come to the surface for an outing to enjoy the last happy time of the solar system. However, as we get closer to the sun, high temperatures, heavy rains and hurricanes will follow. The meteorological department will promptly remind the public not to take risks on the surface.
Accurately predict the "surface suitable activity period" from distant days to recent days, which will bring people a rare outing period; When approaching perihelion and perihelion, it is an important task for meteorological departments in the "escape era" to provide guarantee for transportation in extreme weather-prone environments.
04
Space weather monitoring escorts the voyage.
In the later period of the "escape era", the earth gained enough speed by changing its orbit, then accelerated again with the help of Jupiter's "gravity slingshot", and finally sailed out of the solar system, opening a long "wandering era".
The book wrote: "The earth engine will run continuously for 500 years, when the earth will accelerate to five thousandths of the speed of light, and then the earth will slide at this speed 1300 years. After that, the earth will complete two-thirds of the voyage, it will turn the direction of the engine and start to slow down for 500 years. After 2400 years' voyage, the earth arrived in proxima centauri. In 100 years, it will stop in the orbit of this star and become one of its satellites. "
In the "wandering era", because the earth has lost the light and heat provided by the stars, the surface area of the earth will be close to "absolute zero" except for the high temperature near the engine of the earth. At this point, the atmosphere will disappear and the ground will be covered with strange yellow-green translucent crystal blocks. This is solid oxygen nitrogen, which is frozen air.
Therefore, in the "wandering age", rain, snow, wind and lightning will all become terms in history textbooks, which can only be verified by people after 2500 years.
So, at this time, will the Meteorological Bureau be abolished?
The answer is still no, the meteorological department also has a business called "space weather".
Space weather refers to the state change of space environment in near-earth space or from solar atmosphere to earth atmosphere. In the past, the space weather business mainly monitored the wind speed and density of the solar wind, as well as electromagnetic disturbances, interstellar matter near the earth or space junk. After leaving the solar system, the earth will still cross the terrible asteroid belt and encounter many space "distractions".
At the same time, meteorology, as an important part of the earth's scientific and technological civilization, will not disappear in the long wandering career. When we come to proxima centauri, the three "suns" of Centauri will rise from the horizon in turn, the solid air will melt, the atmosphere will recover, and mankind will have a blue sky again.
By then, at 7: 30 every night, our hundredth generation will still hear the song "Fishing boats sing late" 25 centuries ago-
"Next, broadcast the weather forecast for a specific city."