A team of Chinese scientists and climbers reached the top of Qomolangma at about 12:30 p. m.on Tuesday, May 23. It's the second time since last year for the science expedition(考察) team to reach the top.
The team was made up of 13 Chinese scientists and climbers. They set off at a height of 8,300 meters for the top at about 3 a. m. After more than 8 hours of hard climbing, they arrived at the 8,830-metre weather station.
After fixing steel ropes, changing batteries and putting in wind speed and direction sensors(传感器), they finished improving the world's highest automated(自动化的) weather station, which was set up by Chinese scientists last year. Besides, they collected ice-snow samples on the top for further research.
The weather station records temperatures, wind speeds and other key data for studying climate change. Climate scientists have found that global warming has had a large influence on the glacier number on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau(青藏高原).
Over the last fifty years, the temperature on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has risen about 0.5℃every ten years. Studying the ecosystem(生态系统) of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will help scientists have a better understanding of the influence of climate change, and help scientists and the government make proper decisions.
Since the mid-20th century, China has sent different research expedition teams to Qomolangma.But because of limited resources and technologies, many key scientific questions are still unanswered, such as whether global warming can melt the ice at the top of Qomolangma, and how ecosystem can change as height increases to extremity.
