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| The United States is going to need a lot of missiles if its fighter jets are to shoot down every stray balloon that sets off a radar warning in American airspace. |
| 如果美国的战斗机要击落每一个在美国领空引发雷达警告的流浪气球，将需要大量导弹。 |
| “At any given moment, thousands of balloons” are above the Earth, including many used in the United States by government agencies, military forces, independent researchers and hobbyists, said Paul Fetkowitz, president of Kaymont Consolidated Industries, a maker of high-altitude balloons in Melbourne, Fla. |
| “在任何时候，都有数以千计的气球”在地球上空，其中包括美国政府机构、军队、独立研究人员和业余爱好者使用的许多气球，凯蒙联合实业公司总裁保罗·费特科维茨说。该公司是一家高空飞行气球制造商，位于佛罗里达州墨尔本。 |
| Mr. Fetkowitz and other experts say this flotilla may explain the origins of some of what John Kirby, a National Security Council spokesman, called the “slow-moving objects at high altitude with a small radar cross section” that were shot down over the United States and Canada in recent days. |
| 费特科维茨和其他一些专家都说，这么多气球可能解释了最近几天美国和加拿大上空被击落物体的起源，这些物体被美国国家安全委员会发言人约翰·柯比称为“在高空缓慢移动的物体，雷达截面积小”。 |
| Since Feb. 4, when the United States shot down a large Chinese surveillance balloon that was reportedly flying at a height of roughly 12 miles as it crossed the North American continent, federal officials have sought to enhance radars and atmospheric trackers so they can more closely scrutinize the nation’s airspace. Balloon experts say the upgrade might generate a paralyzing wave of false alarms. |
| 2月4日，美国击落中国的一个大型监视气球，据报道该气球在飞越北美大陆时飞行高度约为19千米，从那以后，联邦官员一直在对雷达和大气跟踪系统做出调整，以便能够更仔细地检查国家领空。气球专家表示，这一升级可能会产生一波令系统瘫痪的误报。 |
| On Friday, fighter jets in waters over Alaska fired on an object the size of a small car that a Defense Department official said was most likely a balloon. The next day, an American F-22 attacked a cylindrical object over the Yukon Territory in Canada that was smaller than the Chinese surveillance device. On Sunday, an octagonal structure with strings hanging off it and no evident payload was hit over Lake Huron. It had first appeared over Montana days before. |
| 上周五，战斗机在阿拉斯加海域上空向一个小汽车大小的物体开火，一名国防部官员称该物体很可能是一个气球。第二天，一架美国F-22在加拿大育空地区上空打击了一个体积小于中国监视气球的圆柱形物体。周日，一个悬挂着绳子的八角形结构物体在休伦湖上空被击中，未见到该物体携带有效载荷。几天前它首次出现在蒙大拿州上空。 |
| Those three objects posed threats to civilian aviation, Mr. Kirby said, but they were not transmitting communications signals. |
| 柯比说，这三个物体对民用航空构成威胁，但它们没有传输通信信号。 |
| “This is a total shocker,” Terry Deshler, an emeritus professor of atmospheric science at the University of Wyoming, said of the recent downings and the enhanced-tracking effort. |
| “这真让人震惊，”怀俄明大学大气科学名誉教授特里·德什勒在谈到最近的击落事件和加强追踪工作时说。 |
| “For years you didn’t hear anything about balloons,” he said. “Now, we’re on the lookout for any kind of flying object.” |
| “多年来你没有听说过任何关于气球的事，”他说。“现在我们却在留心任何会飞的物体。” |
| Mr. Fetkowitz said he worried that government officials in Washington might not realize how crowded American skies had become with high-flying balloons. “There’s a concern that the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing,” he said of military and civilian activities. |
| 费特科维茨说，他担心华盛顿的政府官员可能没有意识到这些高空飞行的气球已经使美国的天空变得十分拥挤。“有人担心右手不知道左手在做什么，”他谈到军事和民用活动时说。 |
| Each year, around 60,000 high-flying balloons are launched just by the National Weather Service, the agency said. They rise into the stratosphere, a layer of the planet’s atmosphere that extends to a height of roughly 30 miles. The balloons used by the Weather Service are designed to rise 20 miles up — far higher than the altitude of any of the four objects detected in the past 10 days. |
| 该机构表示，每年仅国家气象局就会发射大约6万个高空气球。它们上升到平流层，地球大气层的这一层一直延伸到大约48千米的高度。气象局使用的气球可上升到32千米——远高于过去10天检测到的四个物体中任何一个的高度。 |
| Mr. Fetkowitz noted that Alaska — where a U.S. fighter jet shot down the unidentified flying object on Friday — had more weather-balloon launching sites than any other state. |
| 一架美国战斗机周五在阿拉斯加击落了不明飞行物，费特科维茨指出，阿拉斯加拥有比其他任何州都多的气象气球发射点。 |
| The Weather Service’s balloons gather data that keeps passenger jets out of harm’s way and lets experts predict the likely onset of violent storms, Mr. Fetkowitz said. “It’s all about life safety,” he added. |
| 费特科维茨说，气象局的气球收集数据，让喷气式客机远离危险，并让专家预测可能发生的暴风雨。他还说：“这一切都关乎生命安全。” |
| Then there is NASA, which runs a program from Palestine, Texas, that over the years has lofted more than 1,700 large balloons on scientific missions that can last for months. The balloons fly up to 22 miles high, and the payloads weigh up to four tons, roughly that of three small cars. Some carry sensors that explore the health of the ozone layer, which protects living things from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. |
| 然后还有NASA，它在得克萨斯州的帕勒斯坦市开展了一项计划，多年来已经发射了1700多个大型气球，执行可持续数月的科学任务。气球飞行高度可达35千米，有效载荷重达四吨，大约相当于三辆小汽车的重量。有些携带传感器，可以探索臭氧层的健康状况，臭氧层可以保护生物免受太阳紫外线的伤害。 |
| Experts in the balloon industry said that DARPA, the secretive defense agency in charge of advanced technology development, was experimenting with a new class of long-duration balloons for battlefield use that would act as communication relays. But Randolph Atkins, an agency spokesman, said neither he nor his boss knew of any such project. |
| 气球行业的专家表示，负责先进技术开发的秘密国防机构DARPA正在试验一种新型的战场用长效气球，它可以充当通信中继站。但该机构发言人伦道夫·阿特金斯表示，他和他的上级领导都不知道此类项目。 |
| The United States is not alone in its frequent use of balloons. Many of the 193 member states and territories of the World Meteorological Organization, based in Geneva, regularly send up stratospheric balloons in large numbers, some designed for long-term missions that collect data from around the globe. |
| 频繁使用气球的并不只有美国。总部设在日内瓦的世界气象组织的193个成员国和地区中的许多都会定期发射大量平流层气球，其中一些专为收集全球数据的长期任务而设计。 |
| “It’s endless,” Mr. Fetkowitz said of the array of different balloons and programs. |
| “多得数不清，”费特科维茨谈到各种各样不同的气球和项目时说。 |
| Mr. Fetkowitz said the weather balloons lofted by National Weather Service were designed to burst at their highest point and break into fine debris that cannot endanger wildlife down below. He added that some, however, were underinflated and never flew high enough to burst, and thus could wander about aimlessly with the winds. |
| 费特科维茨表示，国家气象局放飞的气象气球经过了专门设计，会在最高点爆炸并破碎成不会危及下方野生动物的细小碎片。然而，他还说，有些气球充气不足，飞得不够高而没有爆炸，因此会随风漫无目的地四处游荡。 |
| “A balloon launched in Denver,” he said, “might land in New Jersey.” |
| “在丹佛发射的气球，”他说，“可能会降落在新泽西。” |
| Users of balloons for scientific, commercial and military purposes have faced criticism in the past. For years, environmentalists have said that exploded balloons have fallen back to earth and imperiled natural landscapes, and particularly sea life. |
| 以科学、商业和军事为目的的气球使用者在过去曾面临批评。多年来，环保主义者一直表示，爆炸的气球落回了地球，危及自然景观，尤其是海洋生物。 |
| “It’s a major scandal,” said Marilynn Mendell, a public relations consultant who has criticized the environmental effects of stray weather balloons for many years. She pointed to balloon debris she found on a beach in 2016 as an example. “The strings on these balloons are huge, long things,” she said. “It’s an international problem.” |
| “这是一个重大丑闻，”公共关系顾问玛丽莲·门德尔说，她多年来一直批评流浪气象气球对环境的影响。她以2016年她在海滩上发现的气球残骸为例。“这些气球上的绳子又大又长，”她说。“这是一个国际问题。” |
| Mr. Fetkowitz of Kaymont Industries said that such criticisms had kept balloon users from speaking out and engaging with the public. “A lot of the scientists out there are keeping their heads down,” he said, even though they know “they’re doing the right thing” for public safety. |
| 凯蒙实业的费特科维茨说，这样的批评让气球使用者不敢发声，也不敢与公众接触。“很多科学家都避免引起注意，”他说，尽管他们知道“他们正在为公共安全做正确的事”。 |
| The silence of balloon experts might explain why no owner of a shot-down object, with the exception of China, is known to have come forward publicly to discuss the incidents or to complain. |
| 气球专家的沉默或许可以解释为什么除了中国之外，没有一个被击落物体的拥有者公开站出来讨论这些事件或提出抗议。 |
| Not all balloons are used for strict scientific or commercial purposes. A bizarre event happened, Mr. Fetkowitz said, when a customer used one of his company’s balloons to loft a device that played aloud the Pink Floyd album “The Dark Side of the Moon.” Mr. Fetkowitz said a different balloon carried a child’s Thomas the Tank Engine toy to stratospheric heights. |
| 并非所有气球都用于严格的科学或商业目的。费特科维茨说，曾发生过一件奇怪的事情，一位顾客使用他公司的一个气球将一个设备带上天空，该设备大声地播放平克·弗洛伊德乐队的专辑《月之暗面》。费特科维茨说，还有一个气球将孩子的托马斯小火车玩具带到了平流层的高度。 |
| “We do vet our customers,” he added. “We’ve turned away people. We don’t want to do business with a guy who wants to send up a gun.” |
| “我们会对客户进行审查，”他还说。“我们曾把人拒之门外。我们不想和一个想把枪送上天的人做生意。” |
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