英国领导的研究小组从印度洋进行历史性的广播

British-led Research Team Makes Historic Broadcast from Indian Ocean

A British-led research team has sent its first live, television quality video transmission from a two-person submersible vehicle.

Team members entered two submersibles, which slowly went down into waters off the coast of the Seychelles on Tuesday. The aim of the project is to document changes taking place in the Indian Ocean.

Heavy seasonal¹ storms and strong underwater currents continued to present problems at greater depths during the study.

The AP used optical video techniques to transmit the pictures through the waves by using the blue part of the electromagnetic spectrum².

Before now, real-time video transmissions from the world’s deep oceans were livestreams. This means they were sent from unmanned subsea vehicles that were operated on land. The video was sent through fixed³ fiber-optic wiring.

The new transmission uses the latest wireless⁴ technology. The signal came from 60 meters down.

The Associated Press is the only news agency working with British scientists from the Nekton research team on its deep-sea project. The researchers hope to open up the secrets of the Indian Ocean, one of the world’s least explored areas.

The team of scientists is gathering⁵ information to help policy-makers to create environmental protection measures.

Oliver Steeds is the director of the study. He said the experience of battling the waves shows the need to expand scientific knowledge of the waters off the Seychelles.

“The problem is, when it comes to this place, when it came to the currents, the most recent current records are from 1882," he said.

The study is expected to last seven weeks, until April 19.

I’m Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

transmission – n. to send video or audio to another place

submersible – adj. an object covered with water, such as a submarine

optical – adj. involving the use of devices that get information for a computer by identifying patterns of light

spectrum – n. the group of colors that a ray of light can be separated into, such as the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo⁶, and violet

livestreamed – v. to play in real time over the internet

fiber-optic – adj. the use of thin threads of glass or plastic to carry large amounts of information in the form of light signals

1 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

2 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

3 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

4 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

5 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

6 indigo   

n.靛青，靛蓝

参考例句：

• The sky was indigo blue,and a great many stars were shining.天空一片深蓝，闪烁着点点繁星。
• He slipped into an indigo tank.他滑落到蓝靛桶中。