Abstract
Mount Everest, the highest point on the Earth is often referred to as the earth's third pole as such the place is relatively inaccessible and little is known about its meteorology. In April 2005, an automatic weather station was installed as the mountain's North Col (6523 m a. s. l.). According to the observational 10-minute mean and daily records, the meteorological characteristics were analyzed. All the meteorological elements displayed obvious diurnal variations during May 1 to July 22, 2005. The monthly variation of daily meteorological elements on Mount Everest coincided with that on Dingri, the closest routine meteorological station, with the high correlation co-efficients of 0.928, 0.877, 0.682, 0.755, 0.826 and 0.676 (n = 83, p < 0.001) for mean temperature, minimum temperature, maximum temperature, relative humidity, pressure and wind speed, respectively. Furthermore, the vertical mean gradient of temperature was above 0.6°C/100 m, especially for the daily maximum temperature. Most weather events on Mount Everest prominently appeared on the same days as those on Dingri, especially those from daily mean pressure, temperature and relative humidity with the cross-correlation coefficients of 0.673, 0.485 and 0.487 (n = 83, p < 0.001), respectively. Some other weather events on Mount Everest lagged one-day behind those on Dingri. Furthermore, forecasting of the weather events on Mount Everest from pressure on Dingri was more reliable than those from the other meteorological elements. The conclusions are much important for research on meteorology and climate changes in the region.
*Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40501015 and 90411003), and the knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX3-SW-344)
Notes
*Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40501015 and 90411003), and the knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX3-SW-344)