近日，一颗重要的欧洲卫星已被送入预定轨道。气象卫星 “ Meteosat-12 ” 搭乘阿丽亚娜火箭从法属圭亚那的库鲁航天发射中心起飞，开启了天气预报的新时代。

The value to society of satellite meteorology is immense. In terms of lives saved and infrastructure damage that's avoided, the returns on investment run into billions annually.

卫星气象学的社会价值是巨大的。就卫星气象学挽救的生命和因其免遭破坏的基础设施而言，每年相关投资的回报可达数十亿美元。

Europe's new Meteosat will replace technology that is now more than 20 years old. National forecasting agencies like the UK Met Office and Meteo France will see a big jump in the amount of data they receive. One of the major innovations on the new Meteosat is the inclusion of a camera to detect lightning.

欧洲的新气象卫星 “Meteosat” 将取代已有20多年历史的技术。英国气象局和法国气象局等国家天气预报机构收到的数据量将大幅增加。新气象卫星 “Meteosat” 的主要创新之一是安装了一个探测闪电的摄像头。

The agencies believe this will be a boon to what they call nowcasting – the ability to track and forewarn of imminent hazardous events. That's because lightning is a tracer for violent wind gusts, heavy rain and hail.

这些气象机构认为，新卫星的运用将有利于所谓的 “临近预报”，即追踪并预警即将发生的危险天气事件的能力。这是因为新卫星可以通过观测闪电来追踪狂风、大雨和冰雹。