According to China Central Television, the automatic weather station was successfully installed on Wednesday, 12:46 local time (07:01 GMT). This is the eighth and the last monitoring station installed on Everest as part of China's scientific project to research global warming effects on the Tibetan Plateau. The stations will collect data on wind speed and direction, relative humidity on the north side of the mountain and other indicators necessary to monitor glacier and snow melting at high altitudes.
The Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences noted that the equipment for the station weighs about 50 kilograms (110.2 lb) and was distributed among some members of the expedition, with each receiving no more than seven kg to lighten the burden. As part of the expedition, scientists will also reportedly install a radar to study the glaciers and measure the thickness of ice and snow on top of Mount Everest.
The title of the highest-altitude weather monitoring station was previously held by a station set up by a group of scientists from the United Kingdom and the United States at an altitude of 8,430 meters on the southern side of Mount Everest in 2019.
In a joint ceremony in December 2020, Nepal and China announced the new height of Everest, which now stands at 8,848.86 meters. The countries had previously disagreed over the height of the world's highest peak, making it impossible to sign the boundary protocol.