我们大多数人都把沙漠想象成只有沙子、炎热，别无他物的地方。2026年，地球上最干旱的地点之一证明了这种想象是错误的。在2019年发表于《国际应用地球观测与地理信息学杂志》的一项研究中，罗伯托·O·查韦斯及其同事描述了在阿塔卡马沙漠降雨异常充沛的年份如何出现“沙漠开花”现象。今年雨水来了，智利北部多岩石的褐色地貌变得鲜花盛开，面积估计达1.7万平方公里。
Most of us picture deserts as places of sand, heat, and little else. In 2026, one of the driest spots on Earth proved that picture wrong. In a 2019 International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation study, Roberto O. Chávez and colleagues described how a “blooming desert” occurs in years when the Atacama receives extraordinarily high rainfall. The rain came this year, and the rocky, brownish landscape of northern Chile turned bright with flowers across an estimated 17,000 square kilometers.A desert that rarely gets rainThe Atacama lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains.
一片几乎不下雨的沙漠阿塔卡马沙漠位于太平洋和安第斯山脉之间。它沿着智利北部海岸延伸约1600公里，是地球上最干旱的非极地沙漠。美国国家航空航天局地球观测站指出，部分地区每年降雨量只有几毫米，有些地区则滴雨不下。安第斯山脉形成了非常强烈的雨影，而寒冷的洋流使海岸附近的空气降温，限制了空气所能携带的水汽。
It extends about 1,600 kilometers along the northern coast of Chile and is the driest nonpolar desert on Earth. Some parts get only a few millimeters of rain a year, and some get none, NASA’s Earth Observatory notes. The Andes form a very strong rain shadow, and a cold ocean current cools the air next to the coast, limiting the moisture it can carry.
通常情况下，这里看起来像是多岩石的褐色沙丘。通常在冬去春来之际会有一些花出现，但今年的开花规模要大得多。厄尔尼诺现象和罕见降雨如何唤醒沙漠据美联社报道，今年早些时候一次超级厄尔尼诺现象给该地区带来了强降雨，智利国家林业局阿塔卡马地区生物学家塞萨尔·皮萨罗表示，一些地点降雨量达到160至190毫米，为有记录以来的最大降雨量。
Normally, it looks like rocky, brownish dunes. Some flowers normally appear as winter turns to spring, but this year’s bloom was much larger. How El Niño and rare rain woke the desertThe Associated Press reported that a super El Niño brought heavy rains to the region earlier this year, and CONAF Atacama biologist César Pizarro said some locations received 160 to 190 millimeters, the largest volumes since records began.
这样的降雨之所以重要，是因为许多开花的植物都是短命物种，一旦有水便迅速生长。2019年的论文利用卫星植被数据追踪这些事件，并描述了短命沙漠植物以及一些木本沙漠植物的生长爆发。美国国家航空航天局称，科学家查看1981年至2015年的卫星数据，确认了13次变绿事件，其中大多数从冬季开始，一直持续到随后的夏季。一场包含200多种植物的开花2026年的开花现象之所以引人注目，在于其规模和多样性。
Such rain matters because many of the blooming plants are short-lived species that grow quickly when water arrives. The 2019 paper used satellite vegetation data to track these events and described the burst of growth among short-lived and some woody desert plants. Scientists looking at satellite data from 1981 to 2015 identified 13 greening events, most starting in winter and continuing into the summer that followed, according to NASA.A bloom with more than 200 plant speciesThe 2026 bloom is notable for its size and variety.
美联社报道称，预计花海覆盖面积约为1.7万平方公里，涵盖200多种植物和花卉，色彩、形状和形态各异。智利林业机构CONAF预测，这将是自1997年以来最强烈、范围最广的“沙漠花海”（Desierto Florido）。值得注意的是，这只是一个预测，覆盖面积也是估算值，因此这些数字并非确定性的测量结果。沙漠花海此前也曾出现，卫星记录显示共有13次。
The AP reported estimated coverage of some 17,000 square kilometers, with more than 200 species of plants and flowers in many colors, shapes, and forms. Chile’s forestry agency CONAF projections say this is expected to be the most intense and widespread Desierto Florido, or “flowering desert,” since 1997. It is worth noting that this is a projection and the coverage is an estimate, so the numbers are not definitive measurements. Desert blooms have happened before, as the 13 events in the satellite record show.
据CONAF的预测，2026年的不同之处在于覆盖范围广且强度大。游客追随花海而来。哪里有花，哪里就有游客。根据国家旅游秘书处向美联社提供的数据，到11月花季结束时，阿塔卡马地区预计将迎来近30万次过夜旅行。这使“沙漠花海”成为本季该地区的主要旅游吸引力之一。37岁的厨师弗朗科·莫亚就是其中一位游客，他从智利中部科尔查瓜谷的圣克鲁斯出发，行程近1000公里，到沙漠中庆祝自己的生日。
What sets 2026 apart, according to CONAF’s projection, is the mix of wide coverage and strong intensity. Tourists follow the flowersWhere there are flowers, there are visitors. According to data the National Tourism Secretariat provided to the AP, the Atacama region is expected to see nearly 300,000 overnight trips by the time the bloom ends in November. That makes Desierto Florido one of the main tourist attractions of the region this season. One visitor was 37-year-old chef Franco Moya, who journeyed nearly 1,000 kilometers from Santa Cruz, a town in central Chile’s Colchagua Valley, to mark his birthday in the desert.
他说，在如此干旱的地方看到花朵生长，令人震撼。眼下，一片通常空旷的沙漠变成了一望无际的野花，而美国国家航空航天局统计的13次事件表明，这种情况并非每年都会发生。
He said it was striking to see flowers growing in such a dry place. Right now, a typically empty desert is a blanket of wildflowers, and NASA’s tally of 13 events shows they do not happen every year.