“Climate change is a global challenge. Climate observations are vital. The establishment of the observation station is very essential to monitor climate change at an extremely high altitude.” said Zhang Lei, a member of the “Earth summit mission 2022” expedition team.

On May 4, the world's highest automatic weather station on Mount Qomolangma was set up by an expedition team from China. It was installed at an altitude of 8,830meters above the sea level, obtaining data from the surrounding areas. Scientists believe that it is a significant milestone of scientific expedition and research on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Zhang Lei works at China Meteorological Administration (CMA). As a member of the expedition team, he is responsible for providing meteorological support, including meteorological observation, scientific research, weather forecast and so on. He was engaged in establishing automatic weather stations and ground observation instruments. He was also busy collecting data such as the wind speed, wind direction, temperature and so on.

Zhang Lei arrives at Mount Qomolangma.

The weather of Mount Qomolangma is always changing. The perfect weather for mountaineering is essential for the successful establishment of the station. Zhang Lei and his colleagues try their best to make more accurate weather forecasts for mountain climbing. Using sounding, ground-based microwave radiometers and other instruments, they detected the vertical structure of the atmosphere of the Qomolangma region continuously in real time. They have made great efforts to observe extreme weather processes to ensure that members of the mountaineering team could successfully reach the top. During mountaineering and floating craft operations, they released the sounding balloons at two o 'clock and eight o 'clock every morning and evening.

Zhang Lei and his colleagues released the sounding balloons

With the joint efforts of the team members, members of the Chinese scientific expedition team successfully reached the summit of Qomolangma and set up the observation station. Including this one, eight elevation gradient meteorological stations have been set up on Mount Qomolangma. Through this scientific expedition, a better understanding of the vertical structure and weather characteristics of the complex area of Mt. Qomolangma is gained.

Participating in one of the main tasks in China’s new comprehensive scientific expedition on the world’s highest peak, Zhang Lei feels very proud. “I believe that scientific research should not only keep up with the frontier of the subject, but more importantly, should meet the needs of the country and the people. We should write the paper on the land of our country, putting theory into practice.” said Zhang Lei.

Working in such an extreme environment, he faced unique challenges. “Field work can be extremely difficult. Dealing with the difficulties in work, I not only realize the importance of persistence, but also gain the courage to innovate. Through the pursuit of breakthroughs in scientific research, he decided to keep on trying to challenge himself and work hard to overcome the difficulties so that he can better understand climate change.

"As a young meteorologist, I will persist in sticking to my scientific dream and do my best to make my own contributions to promoting the development of meteorology." said Zhang Lei.

Editor: Xu Nenyu