At noon on May 4, the expedition team successfully reached the top and set up an automatic weather station at 8830 meters.
In the early morning of May 4, expeditions set out from the assault camp and launched a sprint to the summit of Mount Everest.
At noon on May 4, 13 Members of the Everest Expedition team successfully reached the summit of Mount Everest. This is the first time that the scientific expedition of Mount Everest on the mainland has exceeded the altitude of more than 8,000 meters, which is of epoch-making significance in the history of scientific investigation and research on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. At the summit of Mount Everest this time, the scientific expedition team completed the erection of the world's highest automatic weather station at the altitude, and also used high-precision radar at the "top of the earth" for the first time to measure the thickness of ice and snow at the summit. According to reports, the scientific expedition team will also carry out a number of scientific investigations and studies in the future.
On April 28, the reporter learned from the second Qinghai-Tibet Plateau comprehensive scientific expedition research team that the "Peak Mission 2022 - Comprehensive Scientific Investigation and Research in the Extremely High Altitude Area of Mount Everest" was carried out in the Everest region of Tibet, with 16 scientific expedition teams from 5 scientific expedition teams and a total of more than 270 scientific expedition team members participating.
This is a comprehensive scientific expedition with the widest subject coverage, the largest number of participants, and the most advanced instruments and equipment since the launch of the comprehensive scientific expedition on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in 2017. It is reported that the Everest scientific expedition will focus on the environmental changes in the Everest region, and conduct a comprehensive investigation from the aspects of atmosphere, water, ecology and surface processes. For the first time, researchers will apply advanced technologies, methods and means to conduct research on major scientific issues such as westerly-monsoon synergy, changes in asian water towers, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human activities.
An important task of the Everest expedition is to build 8 weather stations from 5200 meters above sea level to 8800 meters, of which 4 are above 7000 meters above sea level. Once successfully erected, the 8,800-meter weather station will become the highest automatic weather station in the world.
This scientific expedition will obtain valuable data for understanding the changes in the atmospheric environment and cryosphere in the Everest region, provide scientific and technological support for the construction of ecological civilization in extreme environments, reveal the environmental changes in the extremely high altitude area of Mount Everest under the background of climate warming, and propose innovative scientific solutions for the protection of Everest nature.
Moments to the top
The world's highest weather station is erected at 8830 meters
At about 12:46 on May 4, the mainland expedition team successfully erected the world's highest automatic weather station on Mount Everest.
The reporter learned from the forward command of the Everest Base Camp at an altitude of 5200 meters that the members of the mainland scientific expedition team successfully set up an automatic meteorological observation station at an altitude of 8830 meters on Mount Everest. This is the world's highest altitude automatic meteorological observatory and the last weather station erected during the "Pinnacle Mission" Everest expedition.
The erection of this weather station surpasses the automatic weather station built by British and American scientists on the southern slope of Mount Everest in 2019 to become the world's highest automatic weather station, which also means that China's Everest gradient meteorological observation system has been initially completed, which is of great significance for the monitoring of changes in high-altitude glaciers and snow.
Since the beginning of this year, the scientific expedition team has successively set up 4 automatic weather stations at an altitude of 5200 meters, 7028 meters, 7790 meters and 8300 meters. Together with the three automatic weather stations erected last year at an altitude of 6500 meters, 5800 meters and 5400 meters above sea level, and a gradient automatic weather station from 5200 meters to 8300 meters above sea level has been completed and operated, the weather station at an altitude of 8830 meters will be the last piece of the puzzle.
Revelation
Why did the Everest expedition reach the top?
Yao Tandong, captain of the second Qinghai-Tibet Plateau comprehensive scientific expedition research team, on-site commander-in-chief, and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced that in the 1950s and 1960s, the summit of Mount Everest was a major event. At that time, it was called mountaineering expedition, and climbing to the top was the first goal, and the expedition was an accessory, and how much could be done. Later, scientists as independent forces did various scientific expeditions in this area, parallel to mountaineering. However, for such an iconic site as Mount Everest, scientists have mostly done research at an altitude of five or six thousand meters, and there are very few samples above 8,000 meters, and there are still many gaps in the study of the summit of Mount Everest. For example, as the global climate warms, will the snow and ice at the summit melt? What happens to the ecosystem from the base of the mountain to the summit? What are the changes in greenhouse gases and atmospheric pollutants such as carbon dioxide? Many problems must be confirmed by observation, and science cannot be hypothesized.
This time, a mountaineering team of more than ten people was integrated, and special training was conducted for two years for collecting samples, erecting and using instruments and equipment, and recently carried out intensive training. As members of the professional scientific expedition team, they achieved summit sampling for the first time, performing work tasks such as gradient weather station erection, peak shallow ice core drilling and peak radar thickness measurement.
Scientific research on new technology
A "Jimu I" TYPE III floating boat
Located on the northern slope of Mount Everest and at an altitude of nearly 4,300 meters, Everest Station is one of the main camps of the expedition. Here, a large "airship" floats in mid-air, very "grabbing the camera". This is a "Jimu-1" III type floating boat independently developed by the mainland. In this scientific expedition, the expedition team will use the "Jimu-1" III. floating boat to carry out a comprehensive test of the high-altitude atmospheric environment. At present, the preparation of the floating boat-related test is in full swing.
In 2019, the second Qinghai-Tibet Scientific Expedition Water Vapor Transmission Expedition Team carried out regional water cycle observation research at the Namtso Multi-Circle Layer Comprehensive Observation Station in Tibet, and used the "Jimu-1" series of aerostats to comprehensively observe atmospheric water vapor stable isotopes, atmospheric black carbon and atmospheric methane content from the surface to an altitude of 7,000 meters, and obtained scientific data on the changes in atmospheric components at an altitude of 7,000 meters above sea level on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for the first time. This provides key scientific data to reveal where water from Asian water towers comes from.
This time, the "Jimu-1" Type III floating boat will challenge the world's highest lift-off altitude, and the lift-off target is expected to exceed the summit of Mount Everest. "The volume of the floating boat is 9,060 cubic meters, which is a high-altitude observation scientific platform independently developed by the mainland. Our main goal this time is to hope that the floating boat can be lifted to an altitude of more than Mount Everest, more than 9,000 meters. "Peak Mission" Gao Jing, captain of the Comprehensive Scientific Expedition Team of The Everest Scientific Expedition and researcher of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said.
B. Lidar, radio air balloon
Everest weather is changeable and the weather system is quite complex, and extreme weather is also frequent, so meteorological support is very important if you want to carry out scientific research in high-altitude areas.
With the launch of the Everest scientific expedition a few days ago, a meteorological support team composed of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Meteorological Bureau of the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences was also established to continue to do a good job in meteorological support.
In order to ensure the safety of the members of the Everest expedition and the safe climb to the summit, the Everest expedition has introduced a meteorological support mechanism.
Lidar, which can monitor meteorological elements such as wind, wind direction and wind speed at different heights from Everest base camp all the way to the top of Everest. The distant saddle-shaped meteorological device, which is called a microwave radiometer, can measure meteorological elements such as temperature and humidity at different altitudes at high altitudes.
Meteorological monitoring instruments are installed on radio probe balloons, which can detect important meteorological elements at high altitudes.
According to Ma Yaoming, a researcher at the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, this balloon can rise to more than 20,000 meters, can detect changes in temperature, humidity and air pressure in the area from the ground to more than 20,000 meters, obtain vertical hydrothermal change profiles, and transmit data to the forecast car, you can predict the current and tomorrow day after tomorrow weather changes.
C First use of helicopter expeditions
In the "Peak Mission" Everest scientific expedition, helicopters were used for the first time to assist the scientific expedition. According to reports, the helicopter is equipped with a greenhouse gas concentration monitor brought by the Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which can monitor the concentration of greenhouse gases on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the high altitude area of Mount Everest in real time, and calculate the transmission data at the same time, thus bringing convenience to the scientific expedition.
As a helicopter, one of its important uses is to assume the role of transporting people and supplies to high altitudes. With only one pilot, the aircraft can carry 100 to 200 kilograms of cargo from low altitudes to camps at an altitude of 6500 meters, which makes scientific expeditions convenient and saves time.
D Plateau Expedition Robot
The plateau scientific research robot ARIS-8848, developed and designed by Guangdong Shenzhen Youai Zhihe Robot Technology Co., Ltd., also participated in the research expedition robot, which provides stable real-time information for the scientific expedition command team by paying attention to the movements of the expedition team members located above 8,000 meters above sea level in real time in complex meteorological changes.
Top-to-head memorabilia
April 28
"Peak Mission 2022 - Comprehensive Scientific Investigation and Research on the Extremely High Altitude Area of Mount Everest" was fully opened in the Everest region
For the first time, the Everest expedition applied advanced technologies, methods and means to investigate and study the vertical change characteristics and interaction mechanisms of the six major circles in the Everest region, focusing on major scientific issues such as the synergy between the westerly wind and the monsoon, the change of Water Towers in Asia, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human activities.
Around 14:00 on May 2
At an altitude of 6500 meters, the 14 expedition climbers in the forward camp will start the most critical summit expedition of the "Peak Mission", and they will climb the ice wall of the North Pass with automatic weather stations erected instruments and radar equipment for detecting ice thickness.
9 a.m. on May 3
The "Peak Mission" Everest Expedition Summit Working Group marched to the assault camp at an altitude of 8300 meters.
3 a.m. on May 4
13 members of the expedition summit team carried scientific expedition equipment and set off from the assault camp at an altitude of 8300 meters to open the "summit moment" of the expedition.
At noon on May 4
The members of the Mainland Everest Expedition team successfully reached the summit and for the first time used high-precision radar to measure the thickness of ice and snow at the summit.
At 12:46 p.m. on May 4
Mainland expedition team members successfully erected the world's highest automatic weather station on Mount Everest.
A10-15 edition
Coordinator: Yi Fuhong, Yang Cunhai, Comprehensive Xinhua News Agency, CCTV
Written by: Nandu reporter Ao Yinxue Intern Zhang Liti Cui Mianqu Guo Yixuan Yuan Xiaohan He Qianhui