雪在我們印象中一直是潔白無瑕的，但是近日東歐多個地區卻驚現“橙色雪”，這場可怕的橙色暴風雪將大片雪白的山脈變成了赤褐色，火星般的場景讓人懷疑是末日降臨。那么這種詭異的顏色是如何形成的？來看看氣象學家怎么說。

截圖來自衛報網站

A recent fall of really strange orange-tinted snow is making headlines after it swept across a swathe of Eastern Europe. Images on social media from Russia show mountainous landscapes tinged auburn, where usually they are pristine white.
最近東歐多地上空飄起橙色雪，這一奇特景象搶占了新聞頭條。俄羅斯社交媒體的圖片顯示，往常雪白的大片山脈被染成了赤褐色。

Although it resembles what we might imagine snow on Mars to look like, the explanation is actually pretty simple.
盡管它看上去像極了我們想象中的“火星雪”，但是這個現象背后的原因其實很簡單。

According to the BBC, the orange colouration is caused by fine particles of sand being lifted from the Sahara into the atmosphere, travelling across the world and falling back to the ground mixed in with rain and snow.
據BBC報道，雪的橙色調源于撒哈拉沙漠飄來的細沙，這些細沙經歷了“環球旅行”，最后混在雨雪中降落到地面。

It occurs once every five years or so - although this year's orange snow is particularly vibrant, due to a desert sandstorm that was so big it was seen in NASA satellite imagery travelling across the globe, CNN reports.
據CNN報道說，這種現象大約每五年會發生一次，不過今年的橙色雪顏色格外鮮亮，這是因為此前撒哈拉沙漠發生了一場超大規模的沙塵暴，連美國宇航局的衛星圖像上都可以看得見這場沙塵暴在全球范圍內的運動。

Social media users have posted photos of a ski resort in Sochi, Russia with its eerie orange slopes. The bizarre snow has also reportedly fallen on Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova.
社交媒體用戶們上傳了在俄羅斯索契的一個滑雪度假地的照片，照片上可以看到異常的橙色山坡。據報道，保加利亞、烏克蘭、羅馬尼亞和摩爾多瓦也下了這種奇特的雪。

圖片來自巖前松微博

"There has been a lot of lifted sand or dust originating from North Africa and the Sahara, from sand storms which have formed in the desert," meteorologist Steven Keates from the UK Met Office told The Independent.
英國氣象局的氣象學家史蒂芬·基特斯告訴《獨立報》說：“橙色雪中有很多源于北非和撒哈拉的浮沙或浮塵，這些浮沙和浮塵源于沙漠中形成的沙塵暴。”

"As the sand gets lifted to the upper levels of the atmosphere, it gets distributed elsewhere. Looking at satellite imagery from NASA, it shows a lot of sand and dust in the atmosphere drifting across the Mediterranean. When it rains or snows, it drags down whatever is up there, if there is sand in the atmosphere."
“沙子被吹到高空中后，又散布到其他地方。美國宇航局的衛星圖像顯示，大氣中的很多沙塵都飄過了地中海上空。在下雨或下雪時，如果空中有沙塵，就會一起落到地面。”

It seems only fair that the Sahara comes to the snow after the snow came to the Sahara in December 2016- the first time since 1979. And it's done so again in 2017 and this January, too.
既然撒哈拉沙漠都下雪了（2016年12月撒哈拉就下過雪，那是自1979年以來該地區首次降雪），撒哈拉的沙子也應該變成雪才算公平。2017年撒哈拉沙漠又一次下了雪，今年1月也下了。

It is not the first time eastern Europeans have experienced an eerie snow-tint.
這不是東歐人第一次見到這種怪異的雪色了。

A similar phenomenon happened in 2007 when mysterious “oily” orange snow fell across three regions of southern Siberia.
2007年就曾發生過類似的現象，當時神秘的“油膩”橙色雪降落到西伯利亞南部的三個地區。

It's also much more benign than orange snow that fell on Siberia in 2007. Then, locals reported that the snow was foul-smelling and oily to the touch, possibly the result of chemical pollution.
這次下的橙色雪比2007年西伯利亞下的橙色雪要仁慈多了。當時，當地人報告稱，橙色雪腥臭難聞，而且摸起來還油膩膩的，可能是化學污染的結果。

This time, the orange snow is just a nice reminder of how connected we truly are by our planet's weather and climatic systems.
這一次的橙色雪只是溫和地提醒我們，地球的天氣和氣候系統是如何真正把我們聯系在一起。

英文來源：Science Alert、衛報
翻譯&編輯：丹妮