Chinese researchers set up world’s highest weather station on Mount Everest to study roof of the world
- 12-member team carried precision equipment to world’s highest peak to set up automatic weather station at 8,800 metres altitude
- ‘Summit Mission’ project involves 5 scientific research teams, 16 scientific groups and more than 270 researchers
The weather station will be 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.
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.
The new station, which sits at an altitude of 8,800 metres, replaces 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.
One member of the research team, who was suffering from frostbite on the hands, stayed at the camp, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The scientific research project on Everest named “Summit Mission” was fully launched on April 28.