雨云再见:英国公司提供晴天婚礼服务

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  Host: If you’re in New England, planning to get married, and just trying to figure out a date, let me guess, it’s not going to be when the snow is falling, which feels like it could go on…forever? Nope, you’re gonna look into May or June, when there’s no snow. But then the question is, what about the rain? Wedding planners don’t like that either. There is a solution for that though. A British travel company, Oliver’s Travels, says it can give you that dry, dream wedding. Natasja Rasmussen, your company can do this and guarantee a rain-free day?
  Natasja: Yes. Yes, we can.
  Host: How, how does it work?
  Natasja: We’ve actually teamed up with some cloudbursting experts; they’re actually based in the States. And we’ve been specialising in weddings, 1)destination weddings over in France. And what happens is they send over a 2)meteorologist and a pilot, along with the aircraft. The aircraft will then travel over the clouds, and the clouds will burst and disappear before the big day. Host: Cloud bursting. So is this like cloud seeding?
  Natasja: Exactly, yes, uh, cloud seeding is just another name for the cloud bursting.
  Host: I know, like, governments have done this before. Isn’t this really expensive?
  Natasja: You’re right. Previously I guess governments and famous people would’ve been available, but now we’re, uh, offering it to anyone that wants a…that would like their perfect wedding day in France.
  Host: Right. And how much of a, a 3)premium does this add on to the overall price of a wedding? Natasja: Yes, it is quite a premium: starts from£100,000, which is around US$150,000, but for that you do get the three-week project, the pilot and meteorologist 4)on the ground the week before. And it is a 24-hour period prior to the wedding day, where the, uh, the cloud-seeding process does take place.
  Host: So, where can you have this rain-free wedding? Pretty much anywhere in the world?
  Natasja: We were actually just launching it in France initially, ’cause that’s where our…a majority of our destination weddings take place, and then, hopefully, the, the service takes off, then we will offer it to other destination, hopefully here in the UK, ’cause obviously, as you can imagine, the weather here is, is not ideal 5)at the best of times. Get a lot of rain, especially up north.
  Host: And I suppose, you just mentioned the UK, there probably are some “no-go” spots around the world where you would not offer the service, like India during 6)monsoon season.


  Natasja: In extreme weather, such as hurricanes, potentially monsoons, that would be 7)out of the question, ’cause the weather probably cannot be controlled. But, yeah, any heavy cloudy area, lots of rain, the service does work.
  主持人:如果你住在美国的新英格兰地区,计划举行婚礼,正要确定日期,让我猜猜看,你应该不会选下雪的时候,因为那雪好像……下个没完似的?不,你会选择五六月,在不下雪的时节。可是新的问题又来了:要是遇到下雨怎么办呢?婚礼策划人也不喜欢下雨。不过这个问题也有办法解决。英国一家旅游公司——奥利弗旅行社表示,他们能为你提供一个干爽怡人的梦幻婚礼。娜塔莎·拉斯穆森,你的公司能够做到这一点,并确保有个大晴天吗?
  娜塔莎:是的,没错,我们可以做到。
  主持人:如何……你们是怎么做到的呢?
  娜塔莎:事实上,我们与一些消云专家展开了合作;他们的工作地点其实就在美国。我们一直提供婚庆方面的专业服务,专营法国旅行结婚业务。具体做法就是他们会派来一位气象学家、一名飞行员和一架飞机。飞机在云层上方飞过,进行人工消云,在大喜之日来临之前让积云消失殆尽。
  主持人:消云,这和播云差不多吧?
  娜塔莎:确实如此,是的,“播云”就是“消云”的另一种叫法。
  主持人:我知道了,有些政府以前也干过这事。这不会很贵吗?
  娜塔莎:你说得没错。我想,以前只有政府或者名流能够承担这个技术费用,不过现在我们可以为任何想要……在法国举办一场完美婚礼的客户提供服务。
  主持人:好的。那么对一场婚礼的总费用来说,这项服务需要加收多少呢?
  娜塔莎:没错,这确实是一笔不小的额外费用:十万英镑(约合92.1万人民币)起价,约合十五万美元,不过这笔费用涵盖了一个为期三周的计划,飞行员和气象专家会提前一周到当地进行准备。在结婚当日前24小时,他们就要进行播云工作了。
  主持人:那么说,你们能在哪里举办这样的晴天婚礼呢?世界各地都可以吗?
  娜塔莎:我们实际上刚开始在法国试行,因为那里是我们的……旅行结婚业务的主要目的地。而接下来,希望这项业务能够大受欢迎,接着我们会在其他目的地提供这一服务,希望也能在英国本地推出,因为很显然,你也可想而知,这里的天气……即使在情况最好的时候,这里的天气也并不理想。雨水太多了,特别是在北方。
  主持人:我猜……你刚提到了英国,那么在世界范围内也会有一些“绝对没门”的地点吧——你们在当地无法提供此项服务,比如说雨季时节的印度。
  娜塔莎:在极端天气里,比如刮飓风或者雨季即将到来,那是压根办不到的,因为这种天气大概无法进行干预。但是,没错,在任何浓云密布或雨水充沛的地区,这项服务都能派上用场。
  人工影响天气与播云技术
  人工影响天气是用人为手段使天气现象朝着人们预定的方向转化,如人工降水、人工降雹、人工消云、人工消雾、人工削弱台风、人工抑制雷电、人工防霜冻等。从避雷针开始,影响天气的尝试可以说是古来有之,但真正的人工影响天气的科学活动应该始于1946年11月13日,美国科学家首次在云中撒播干冰,由此开创了人工影响天气的时代。
  人工影响天气最主要的方法是播云,即用飞机、火箭或地面发生器等手段向云中播撒碘化银等催化剂,改变云的微结构,使云、雾、降水等天气现象发生改变。对象的性质不同,播云所用的催化剂也不同,其催化过程可分为冷云催化和暖云催化。
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