2023 Author: Bryan Walter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 22:24
An international scientific expedition of the National Geographic Society and the Nepalese University of Tribhuvan established five weather stations on Everest. One of them - at a record altitude of 8,430 meters, according to National Geographic and a press release from the University of Maine. In addition, the expedition members explored the ecosystems of Everest to understand how climate change affects them.
In 2019, the National Geographic Society launched the Perpetual Planet Extreme Expeditions project. As part of the project, it is planned to conduct a series of research expeditions, during which scientists investigate the effects of climate change in mountains, tropical forests and oceans. In April 2019, the first expedition started, to Everest. The international group of researchers and climbers is led by the director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, Paul Mayewski.
On April 16, the expedition reached the base camp on Everest. Then, for almost two months, scientists studied the ecosystems of Everest to understand how climate change is affecting them. Biologists made observations of animals and plants, and also collected samples of soil and lake water and investigated the presence of living organisms in them. During the observations, they found two types of insects at a record height - centipede at 5, 5 thousand meters and caddis flies at 5, 6 thousand meters. Glaciologists took samples from the highest glacier of the planet, located at an altitude of 8020 meters, as well as samples of snow and water from glacial lakes, including samples for microplastics.
Meteorologists have installed five weather stations on Everest. Two of them are at an altitude of 7945 and 8430 meters. Each station will record temperature, relative humidity, pressure, wind speed and direction. All data will be available to researchers, climbers and the general public in near real time.
Prior to that, the highest-mountain meteorological station was located on Everest, at an altitude of eight thousand meters. And the highest-altitude meteorological station in Russia, Sulak, is located in Dagestan - it is installed at an altitude of 2927 meters.
