A weather station has been installed at Bishop’s rock near the summit of Mount Everest, officials said.
An expedition team of National Geographic Society set up the weather station at an altitude of 8,810 meter on May 9. This is by far the highest weather station in the world.
“The team has installed the station at Bishop’s ledge, which is below 35-40 meter below the summit,” said Khimlal Gautam, a surveyor who measured Mount Everest in 2019, “Nepalis know this place as the Everest’s last outcrop rock right after Hillary step”
Bishop’s Rock, named after Barry Bishop, who was a member of the first American expedition team organized in 1963 lies at an altitude of around 8810 meters. Nepalis know this place as the last exposed rock below the Everest summit.
The Kathmandu based Shangri La Nepal had organized a 13-member team to do the groundwork. The team also comprised a scientist.
The National Geographic had sought consent from Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Metrology before installing the weather station.
This weather station is at a higher point than the one installed by China last month.
On May 4, a Chinese scientific expedition team had installed an automatic meteorological monitoring station at an altitude of 8,800 meter, about 48 meters below the summit point.
The data gathered by the station will be used by both Nepal and National Geographic Society.
The main objective of the station is to study the impact of climate change in the himalayas.
Both Nepal and China have installed multiple weather stations on the way to the summit of Mount Everest.
A recent analysis of the ice core drilled from South Col Glacier at an altitude of 8,000 meters showed that the ice that took 2,000 years to form has melted in around 25 years as the Nepal side of the peak continues to lose decades worth of ice every year.