Asia-Pacific

China: World’s highest automatic weather station established

Courtesy of Xinhua via China Daily
A scientific research member checks a microwave radiometer at the Mount Qomolangma base camp on May 3.

China Daily via Asia News Network

15:52 JST, May 26, 2022

Chinese scientific researchers on May 4 established an automatic meteorological monitoring station at an altitude of over 8,800 meters, the world’s highest of its kind, on Mount Qomolangma on the China-Nepal border.

It has replaced the station sitting at an altitude of 8,430 meters on the south side of the mountain, set up by British and U.S. scientists in 2019, to become the world’s highest, according to the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The new scientific expedition on Mount Qomolangma is part of China’s second scientific research survey on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Including the new station, eight elevation gradient meteorological stations have been set up on Mount Qomolangma, one of the main tasks in China’s new comprehensive scientific expedition on the world’s highest peak.

Zhao Huabiao, a researcher with the ITP, said the monitored meteorological data will support scientific research and mountaineering activities.

Weather factors such as temperature, wind speed and humidity will directly affect the completion of scientific research tasks and the safety of research personnel at high altitude. Therefore, a meteorological support team has been launched in safeguards of the scientific expedition.