University climate scientist plays role installing two highest weather stations on Mount Everest
A CLIMATE scientist from Loughborough University was part of the team that installed the two highest weather stations in the world on Mount Everest to enable communities to respond to climate risks.
Led by the National Geographic Society and Tribhuvan University in partnership with Rolex, Dr Tom Matthews joined a team of international scientists, storytellers, and climbers on a twomonth expedition to research into the effects of climate change on the glaciers and the environment on the mountain.
The two weather stations installed by Dr Matthews, Dr Baker Parry from Appalachian State University (North Carolina, USA), and a team of Sherpas, sit at 8,430 metres and 7,945 metres. A further three stations were also installed.
They will provide researchers, climbers and the public, with near real-time information about mountain conditions.
Each station will record data on aspects such as temperature, humidity, wind speed and wind direction.
Previous studies have shown that the glaciers are rapidly disappearing due to increasing global temperatures.
Little is known about future impacts their disappearance could have on the lives and livelihoods of the more than one billion people in the region, who depend on the reliable flow of water the glaciers provide.
As well as installing the weather stations, Dr Matthews will also help to monitor the upper atmosphere, which is critical to tracking and predicting weather patterns around the globe.
Dr Tom Matthews, of the university’s School of Social Sciences, said: “This research is important across a range of scales. Locally, the installed weather stations will enable us to improve weather forecasts on Everest, making the mountain safer for those trying to climb it.
“They also inform understanding of how the jet stream may be changing as the climate warms, and how quickly high-altitude glaciers in the Himalayas (which store water for hundreds of millions of people) may be retreating. These issues are of global significance.”
As well as installing the weather stations, members of the expedition team conducted research in five areas of science that are critical to understanding environmental changes and their impacts. The five areas were: biology, glaciology, meteorology, geology, and mapping.