2022-05-18

雷雨时划破长空的闪电有一个你不知道的功能，那就是净化空气，而且还有助于抗击全球气候变暖。新研究发现，闪电会释放大量的“化学清洗剂”，帮助大气自我净化。

What is the purpose of lightning? That might sound like a deeply philosophical1 question, but scientists may have shed some more light on the answer with the results of a recently released study.

闪电的功能是什么？听上去可能像是一个深刻的哲学问题，但是科学家最近发布的一项研究结果也许能对这一问题的答案带来一些启示。

The new study published at the end of April in Science found that lightning may play a bigger role in global climate change than was previously2 known by the scientific community. "Lightning increases the atmosphere's ability to cleanse3 itself," the researchers wrote in the study.

这项四月末发表在《科学》杂志上的新研究发现，闪电对全球气候变化的影响力可能比科学界先前所了解的更大。研究人员在报告中写道：“闪电会提高大气自我净化的能力。”

Many are familiar with the potentially deadly hazards posed by lightning, which is blamed for an average of 43 fatalities4 in the United States each year, based on data from 1989 to 2018. Although the odds5 of being struck are quite low -- 1 in 1,222,000 in a given year and 1 in 15,300 in a lifeti