China will set up a scientific research station on the Mount Qomolangma, the highest peak in the world, to observe and research atmospheric and environmental changes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

The station will be officially established in the first half of next year on the flat floodplain near the Base Camp, which is 5,200 meters above the sea level on the northern slope of the Mount Qomolangma.

The station will be mainly used for studying the relationship between the atmosphere on and the plateau and the global atmosphere, the exchange between ground atmosphere and tropospheric atmosphere and global environmental changes, said Ma Yaoming, a research fellow with the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Ma said the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the youngest plateau in the world and influences atmosphere and environment processes in East Asia and around the world.

Ma said studying atmosphere and environment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is of important scientific value.

Italy launched a similar program on the southern slope of the Mount Qomolangma in the 1990s.

Since the southern and northern slopes of the Mount Qomolangma differ greatly, Chinese scientists can make a comparative research by establishing an observation station on the northern slope, Ma said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2004)