INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
KATHMANDU, MAY 18A team of scientific expedition from the National Geographic Society has successfully installed the
"world's highest weather station" at an altitude of 8,830m on Mt Everest.A multidisciplinary team of climate scientists and world-renowned
climbers, who spent nearly a month in the Everest region, installed the weather station at 8,830m, a few metres below the summit point
(8,848.86m) last week, according to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.
The automatic weather monitoring station
powered by solar panels below the summit point is expected to measure the air temperature, wind speed and direction, air pressure, change in
surface height of snow, incoming shortwave and long wave radiation, and out-going shortwave and long wave radiations.Five automatic weather
stations were installed during the Perpetual Planet Extreme expedition on Mt Everest organised by National Geographic Society in April/May
Weather stations were installed at the Balcony area (8,430 m), South Col (7,945 m), Camp II (6,464 m), Everest Base Camp (5,315 m), and
The Balcony station had collapsed a few months after its installation, whereas the South Col station has not provided data as expected.A
team led by climate scientist Baker Perry from Appalachian State University installed the world's highest weather station at 8,830m and
carried out maintenance on other stations, including a station at South Col, a source said
He added that a few members of the expedition, including climate scientists Tom Matthews and Ari Khadka also scaled Mt Everest while
installing the weather station.The team has returned to Kathmandu after accomplishing the mission, according to DHM officials.DHM's Director
General Kamal Ram Joshi said details of the expedition's outcomes would be released next week
DHM has also requested the NatGeo team to transmit data directly to Nepal authorities without channeling it via NatGeo server, which has
been the case till now.Prior to this expedition, a memorandum of understanding between DHM and National Geographic was also signed to
operate all five AWS providing near real-time information about mountain conditions
The National Geographic team will fully operate the stations till the end of 2025 before handing over the same to the Government of Nepal
Technology transfer will be done by 2026, adds the MoU.Meanwhile, a Chinese expedition also installed an automatic meteorological monitoring
station at an altitude of over 8,800 metres on Mt Everest from the northern side
According to Chinese media reports, China has eight stations set up from 5,200 metres to 8,800 metres on Mt Everest, with four stations
exceeding 7,000 metres at 7,028 metres, 7,790 metres, 8,300 metres, and 8,800 metres."The reason for installing a weather station at 8,800
metres instead of 8,848.86 metres is that the snow and ice on the summit are not suitable for fixing equipment
For this reason, the weather station was built on a bedrock around 8,800 metres," the Global Times quoted Zhao Huabiao, a researcher at the
Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, as saying.Scientists are evaluating satellite data to ascertain whether the Chinese claim of an AWS
at 8,800m is true, according to sources.A version of this article appears in the print on May 19, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com