KATHMANDU, MAY 18

A 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 2019. 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 Phortse (3,810 m). 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.