China sets up world's highest weather station on Mount Everest

A team of Chinese researchers set up the world's highest automatic meteorological monitoring station on Mount Everest, or Qomolangma, at an altitude of 8,830 meters above sea level on Wednesday.

The new station replaced the Balcony Station, set up by American and British scientists, as the highest weather station on Earth. The Balcony Station, set up on Everest in 2019, sits at about 8,430 metres above sea level.

The new weather station is the first to use high-precision radar to measure the thickness of snow and ice on the peak of the world's highest mountain, which is on the China-Nepal border, South China Morning Post reported.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where Mount Everest is located, is known as the roof of the world, the water tower of Asia and the Earth's third pole.

Twelve members of the team carrying scientific research equipment left the temporary camp at an altitude of 8,300 metres (27,200 feet) at 3am on Wednesday and started the final-stage "summit moment", establishing the station shortly before 1pm.

Later, they successfully tested data transmission.

China has been conducting research on the world's tallest peak since the 1950s.

The scientific research project on Everest named "Summit Mission" was fully launched on 28 April.

Five scientific research teams, 16 scientific research groups and more than 270 researchers are taking part in the project, according to CCTV, which said the scientists would conduct research across a broad range of areas using advanced instruments and equipment.

Powered by solar panels, the station is designed to last for two years under harsh weather conditions and is equipped with a satellite communications system for data transmission every 12 minutes, according to a CGTN report.

Earlier this year, three meteorological stations were established on the north side of the mountain at 7,028 meters, 7,790 meters and 8,300 meters to take the number of operational weather stations between 5,200 meters and 8,300 meters to seven. 

With the highest now fully installed, the eight stations will work together to record temperatures, relative humidity, wind speeds, wind direction, solar radiation and other data on the northern slope of Mount Qomolangma. 

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua before the mission, leader of the Summit Mission Yao Tandong said Chinese researchers expected to achieve new breakthroughs this year by applying advanced technologies for the first time.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was significant for various reasons, including as the origin of many important rivers in the world, and because its biodiversity resembled a "miniature landscape of the Earth", said Yao, a Chinese Academy of Sciences member who specialises in studying glaciers.

"From a scientific point of view, the changes in the climate and environment of the Tibetan Plateau can affect the whole world," he said.

The new weather station is an important part of the plateau research China has been planning for many years, Yao told Xinhua in the interview published on Wednesday.

The climbing team had more than two years special training in collecting samples, setting up and using instruments and equipment, according to Yao.

"As professional scientific researchers, they are expected to do the summit sampling for the first time and perform tasks such as erecting a gradient weather station, ice-core drilling and radar thickness measurement at the summit," he said.

"We believe we will show more new discoveries and progress in the international arena and (China) will have a greater international voice in related scientific research fields."