澳大利亚的天气周期论与现代气象学的萌生(1830-1900)

Periodicity Theories and the Emergence of Modern Meteorology in Australia(1830-1900)

干旱与洪水的交替扰动是殖民地时代澳大利亚天气周期论最初形成的自然基础。建立在数据回溯基础上的天气周期论代表了公众在全新环境中借助知识工具认知外部世界,并服务于生产生活的生态应对。作为一种来自南半球的殖民知识,融合了民间生态智慧与物理学理论的长周期论,逐渐发展成为现代气象学的重要理论,促进气象学科学化,并启发了此后数十年间的全球气象研究。在天气周期论创建之初,在此基础上的气象预测却引发了巨大争议,成为未能通过科学团体的内部检验、悬而未决的思想实验。19世纪末澳大利亚气象学者亨利·拉塞尔与查尔斯·艾吉森之间的学术争论,折射出澳大利亚气象学在国际学术转型时期的迅速发展与困境。

The theory of weather cycles has been an essential part of meteorology during different historicaltimes.The periodicity theories,which were established on the basis of data tracing in Australia duringthe colonial era,represented ecological response of the public getting to learn the external world andserve production and life in a new environment.As a kind of colonial knowledge from the southernhemisphere,the long periodicity theories combining folk ecological wisdom and physical theory graduallydeveloped into an important theoretical tool of modern meteorology,promoted the scientization ofmeteorology,and inspired the global meteorological research in the following decades.At the beginningof the theory creation,the meteorological predictionguided by the cycletheory caused great controversyfailed to pass the test within scientific community,and became an unresolved thought experiment.At theend of the 19 th century,the grievances'between two Australian meteorologists,Henry Russell andCharles Egeson,reflected the rapid development and dificulties which were faced by the Australianmeteorology during the period of international academic transformation.