Variations of extreme temperature in the Mount Qomolangma region in China during 1971-2020

According to observational daily temperature data from the meteorological stations during 1971-2020,the variations of the extreme temperature event in the Mount Qomolangma(also known as Mount Everest) region in China have been analyzed using statistical methods.The extreme temperature indices recommended by the World Meteorological Organization are selected to describe the extreme temperature event.The RClimDEX 1.0 software is used to calculate the extreme temperature indices.There are no tropical nights,and just three summer days at the last 50 years.The frost days are the main extreme temperature events all year round.The temperature in the north slope is more extreme than that in the south slope of the Mount Qomolangma.There is remarkable decadal variation for the extreme temperature indices except diurnal temperature range.There are the warm extremes increasing,however,the cold extremes decreasing with the decadal lapse,which is more remarkable into the 21^(th) century.The tendencies for the extreme temperature indices in the north slope are consistent with those in the south slope.There are statistically significant trends for most extreme temperature indices during the study period.It shows that the warm extremes would be more prominent in the future with the global continued warming.The abrupt changes of the extreme temperature index have occurred mainly in the 20^(th) century especially from the mid to late 1980s and 1990s.The periodic changes in the south slope do not synchronize those in the north slope for the most extreme temperature indices.It is different for most extreme temperature indices between the south and north slope,which has demonstrated that the regional or local changes are not neglectable for extreme temperature research.The results of this study are also the consistent response of extreme temperature event to the global warming.

希夏邦马六十年

60年前的1964年5月2日,中国登山队10名登山队员成功登顶海拔8027m的希夏邦马峰。作为全球8000m以高的最高峰之一,希夏邦马也是一座完全位于我国境内的山峰。在这次登山过程中,中国科学院组织了希夏邦马峰科学考察,其在地质学方面取得的主要学术成果包括:(1)将区域上变质的岩石归类为希夏邦马群,并将其划分为下部的片麻岩(包括下段粗粒的片麻岩和上段细粒的变粒岩)和上部的片岩两类,相当于现今划分的高喜马拉雅结晶岩系和肉切村群浅变质岩系。同时认为,希夏邦马峰顶的岩石为上述片麻岩;(2)建立了区内显生宙地层系统,分别为上古生界港门穹群、中生界土隆群和雪拉群及新生界野博康加勒群;(3)在5800m营地附近的野博康加勒群下部砂砾岩中发现了高山栎植物化石,并据此提出了喜马拉雅山3Ma以来隆升了约3000m的认识;(4)运用K-Ar法获得的区内淡色花岗岩-伟晶岩的年龄为13~15Ma,而眼球状片麻岩的年龄为19~35Ma,表明希夏邦马形成于非常年轻的中新世。希夏邦马考察及取得的成果对后来我国喜马拉雅山其他地区的考察起到了很好的示范作用。但是,1964年登顶以后,很少再有地质学家对此山峰展开进一步的科学考察与研究。近30年来,珠穆朗玛峰及喜马拉雅地区其他山峰的研究已经基本明确,喜马拉雅由下部的高喜马拉雅深变质岩系和上部未变质的特提斯喜马拉雅沉积岩系构成,两者之间为遭受韧性伸展变形的构造岩系,即藏南拆离系。未来,应着重检查希夏邦马地区变质岩岩石性质、显生宙地层层序及区域构造特征,确定峰顶究竟是变质岩还是淡色花岗岩,并进一步研究含高山栎化石地层的时代及沉积物形成机制等。

“珠峰测量精神”融入《工程测量》课程思政教学探索与实践

“课程思政”是专业教育与思政教育的有机融合,是实现“三全育人”的重要举措。为了深入贯彻和落实课程思政理念,本文通过分析“珠峰测量精神”中“勇攀高峰、艰苦奋斗、不断创新、追求卓越”的核心精神,将其引入《工程测量》课程,确立了该课程教学的思政目标、思政元素和思政内涵,并将“珠峰测量精神”思政元素渗透到教学全过程。教学实践表明,该方法有助于充分发挥“珠峰测量精神”的价值引领作用,达到专业教育的价值塑造、能力培养、知识传授三位一体的教学目标。

2020年珠峰高程测量与确定流程解析

着重解析2020年珠峰高程测量数据处理流程。首先详细介绍用于计算珠峰峰顶海拔高的2个重要数值的计算过程,然后给出中尼联合发布的基于国际高程参考系统(international height reference system,IHRS)的珠峰高程成果(8 848.86 m),最后总结本次珠峰高程测量成果特点,阐述其精度与可靠性。

珠峰高程测量峰顶重力测量仪的选型及改进

主要阐述了珠穆朗玛峰峰顶重力测量重力仪的选型、改进和野外试验。根据珠峰重力测量的环境条件和技术要求制定了仪器选型和参数指标要求,对备选相对重力仪的对应指标参数进行分析,决定采用Z2020相对重力仪。针对Z2020相对重力仪的具体参数和硬件实际情况,结合珠峰地区恶劣的自然环境,对其计数器传动系统、光学照明系统、测程调节系统、传动系统进行了改进,并进行了低温测试、野外性能试验。实验结果表明,改进后的Z2020相对重力仪满足峰顶重力测量的技术要求。珠穆朗玛峰峰顶重力测量实施结果表明:改进后的Z2020相对重力仪操作方便,性能稳定,成果可靠,提高了在珠穆朗玛峰峰顶重力测量实际环境中的适应性,确保了任务的技术要求和工程实现。

Assessment of habitat suitability of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) in Qomolangma National Nature Reserve based on MaxEnt modeling

Habitat evaluation constitutes an important and fundamental step in the management of wildlife populations and conservation policy planning. Geographic information system （GIS） and species presence data provide the means by which such evaluation can be done. Maximum Entropy （MaxEnt） is widely used in habitat suitability modeling due to its power of accuracy and additional descriptive properties To survey snow leopard populations in Qomolangma （Mt. Everest） National Nature Reserve （QNNR）, Xizang （Tibet）, China, we pooled 127 pugmarks, 415 scrape marks, and 127 non-invasive identifications of the animal along line transects and recorded 87 occurrences through camera traps from 2014-2017. We adopted the MaxEnt model to generate a map highlighting the extent of suitable snow leopard habitat in QNNR. Results showed that the accuracy of the MaxEnt model was excellent （mean AUC=0.921）. Precipitation in the driest quarter, ruggedness, elevation, maximum temperature of the warmest month, and annual mean temperature were the main environmental factors influencing habitat suitability for snow leopards, with contribution rates of 20.0%, 14.4%, 13.3%, 8.7%, and 8.2% respectively The suitable habitat area extended for 7 001.93 km^2, representing 22.72% of the whole reserve. The regions bordering Nepal were the main suitable snow leopard habitats and consisted of three separate habitat patches Our findings revealed that precipitation, temperature conditions, ruggedness, and elevations of around 4 000 m a.s.I, influenced snow leopard preferences at the landscape level in QNNR. We advocate further research and cooperation with Nepal to evaluate habitat connectivity and to explore possible proxies of population isolation among these patches. Furthermore, evaluation of subdivisions within the protection zones of QNNR is necessary to improve conservation strategies and enhance protection.

Climate change in Mt. Qomolangma region since 1971

Using monthly average, maximum, minimum air temperature and monthly precipitation data from 5 weather stations in Mt. Qomolangma region in China from 1971 to 2004, climatic linear trend, moving average, low-pass filter and accumulated variance analysis methods, the spatial and temporal patterns of the climatic change in this region were analyzed. The main findings can be summarized as follows： （1） There is obvious ascending tendency for the interannual change of air temperature in Mt. Qomolangma region and the ascending tendency of Tingri, the highest station, is the most significant. The rate of increasing air temperature is 0.234℃/decade in Mt. Qomolangma region, 0.302 ℃/decade in Tingxi. The air temperature increases more strongly in non-growing season. （2） Compared with China and the global average, the warming of Mt. Qomolangma region occurred early. The linear rates of temperature increase in Mt. Qomolangma region exceed those for China and the global average in the same period. This is attributed to the sensitivity of mountainous regions to climate change. （3） The southern and northern parts of Mt. Qomolangma region are quite different in precipitation changes. Stations in the northern part show increasing trends but are not statistically significant. Nyalam in the southern part shows a decreasing trend and the sudden decreasing of precipitation occurred in the early 1990s. （4） Compared with the previous studies, we find that the warming of Mt. Qomolangma high-elevation region is most significant in China in the same period. The highest automatic meteorological comprehensive observation station in the world set up at the base camp of Mt. Qomolangma with a height of 5032 m a.s.l will play an important role in monitoring the global climate change.

Monitoring Glacier and Supra-glacier Lakes from Space in Mt. Qomolangma Region of the Himalayas on the Tibetan Plateau in China

Because of the large number and remoteness, satellite data, including microwave data and optical imagery, have commonly been used in alpine glaciers surveys. Using remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques the paper presents the results of a multitempora satellite glacier extent mapping and glacier changes by glacier sizes in the Mt. Qomolangma region at the northern slopes of the middle Himalayas over the Tibetan Plateau. Glaciers in this region have both retreated and advanced in the past 35 years, with retreat dominating. The glacier retreat area was 3.23 km2 (or 0.75 km2 yr-1) during 1974 and 1976, 8.68 km2 (or 0.36 km2 yr-1) during 1976 and 1992, 1.44 km2 (or 0.12 km2 yr-1) during 1992-2000. 1.14 km2 (or 0.22 km2 yr-1) during 2000-2003, and 0.52 km2 (or 0.07 km2 yr-1) during 2003-2008, respectively. While supra-glacier lakes on the debris-terminus of the Rongbuk Glacier were enlarged dramatically at the same time, from 0.05 km2 in 1974 increased to 0.71 km2 in 2008, which was more than 13 times larger in the last 35 years. In addition, glacier changes also showed spatial differences, for example, glacier retreat rate was the fastest at glacier termini between 5400 and 5700 m a.s.l than at other elevations. The result also shows that glaciers in the middle Himalayas retreat almost at a same pace with those in the western Himalayas.

Vegetation change in the Mt. Qomolangma Nature Reserve from 1981 to 2001

Based on the NOAA AVHRR-NDVI data from 1981 to 2001, the digitalized China Vegetation Map （1：1,000,000）, DEM, temperature and precipitation data, and field investigation, the spatial patterns and vertical characteristics of natural vegetation changes and their influencing factors in the Mt. Qomolangma Nature Reserve have been studied. The results show that： （1） There is remarkable spatial difference of natural vegetation changes in the Mt. Qomolangma Nature Reserve and stability is the most common status. There are 5.04% of the whole area being seriously degraded, 13.19% slightly degraded, 26.39% slightly improved, 0.97% significantly improved and 54.41% keeping stable. The seriously and slightly degraded areas, which mostly lie in the south of the reserve, are along the national boundaries. The areas of improved vegetation lie in the north of the reserve and the south side of the Yarlung Zangbo River. The stable areas lie between the improved and degraded areas. Degradation decreases with elevation. （2） Degeneration in the Mt. Qomolangma Nature Reserve mostly affects shrubs, needle-leaved forests and mixed forests. （3） The temperature change affects the natural vegetation changes spatially while the integration of temperature changes, slopes and aspects affects the natural vegetation change along the altitude gradients. （4） It is the overuse of resources that leads to the vegetation degeneration in some parts of the Mt. Qomolangma Nature Reserve.

Seasonal features of aerosol particles recorded in snow from Mt. Qomolangma (Everest) and their environmental implications

To assess the seasonality of aerosol deposition and anthropogenic effects on central Himalayas, a 1.85-m deep snow pit was dug on the northern slope of Mt. Qomolangma （Everest）. Based on the morphology and energy dispersive X-ray （EDX） signal, totally 1500 particles were classed into 7 groups： soot; aluminosilicates; fly ash; calcium sulfates; Ca/Mg carbonates; metal oxides; and biological particles and carbon fragments. The size distribution and number fractions of different particle groups exhibited distinct seasonal variations between non-monsoon and monsoon periods, which are clearly related to the differences in air mass pathways. Specifically, the relative abundance of soot in non-monsoon period （25%） was much higher than that in monsoon period （14%）, indicating Mt. Qomolangma region received more anthropogenic influence in non-monsoon than monsoon period.

Impacts of the Kuwait Oil Fires on the Mount Qomolangma Region

Mt. Qomolangma (also known as Mt. Everest), the world's highest mountain, is situated over the world＇s highest plateau, the Tibetan Plateau. Because of its height and because of its distance from industrialized areas, the environmental state of the Mt. Qonlolangma region can normally be considered 'undisturbed'. It is interesting to investigate how this “undisturbed” state has been changing with time and whether it has been influenced by large environmentally disruptive events such as the Kuwait oil fires of 1990 and 1991 (Small, 1991). In order to do this, river water samples were collected from the Rongpu River at Rongpu Temple Station in the summers of 1992 and 1993,as was done in 1975, and aerosol samples were collected in the summer of 1992 at the same station as was done in 1980. River water samples were analyzed using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Aerosol samples were analyzed using proton-induced x-ray emission (PIXE) at the University of Fudan in Shanghai. The results show that the concentrations of chemical species in the river water at Rongpu Temple Station were much higher in the summer of 1992 than they were in 1975 and 1993, and the concentrations of atmospheric chemical species were much higher in 1992 than they were in 1980. The environment of the north slope of Mt.Qomolangma was therefore heavily polluted before and / or during the summer of 1992, possibly due to the Kuwait oil fires in 1990 and 1991.

Predicting Potential Distribution of Tibetan Spruce (Picea smithiana) in Qomolangma (Mount Everest) National Nature Preserve Using Maximum Entropy Niche-based Model

Tibetan spruce (Picea smithiana) is an endemic species of the Himalayas,and it distributes only in a re-stricted area with very low number.To address the lack of detailed distributional information,we used maximum en-tropy (Maxent) niche-based model to predict the species' potential distribution from limited occurrence-only records.The location data of P.smithiana,relative bioclimatic variables,vegetation data,digital elevation model (DEM),and the derived data were analyzed in Maxent.The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to assess the prediction accuracy.The Maxent jackknife test was performed to quantify the training gains from data layers and the response of P.smithiana distribution to four typical environmental variables was analyzed.Results show that the model performs well at the regional scale.There is a potential for continued expansion of P.smithiana population numbers and distribution in China.P.smithiana potentially distributes in the lower reaches of Gyirong Zangbo and Poiqu rivers in Gyirong and Nyalam counties in Qomolangma (Mount Everest) National Nature Preserve (QNNP),China.The species prefers warm temperate climate in mountain area and mainly distributes in needle-leaved evergreen closed to open forest and mixed forest along the river valley at relatively low altitudes of about 2000-3000 m.Model simulations suggest that distribution patterns of rare species with few species numbers can be well predicted by Max-ent.

Spatial-temporal dynamics of alpine grassland coverage and its response to climate warming in Mt.Qomolangma Nature Preserve during 2000-2019

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau(QTP)has the largest and highest alpine grassland ecosystem in the world,which is considered to be the most sensitive and vulnerable ecosystem to climate change.Its dynamic changes and driving mechanism have always been widely researched.The Qomolangma National Nature Preserve(QNNP),with the largest altitude difference in the world,was selected as the study area to analyse the spatial-temporal dynamics of grassland coverage and the different characteristics of elevation gradients at the southern slope(SS)and northern slope(NS)with MODIS MOD13Q1 NDVI and MOD11A2 land surface temperature data from 2000to 2019 using the Mann-Kendall trend test and Theil-Sen slope methods.Further,the response mechanism of grassland coverage to climate warming is discussed.The results revealed that from 2000 to 2019,the grassland coverage change in the study area is mainly stable.The increased area proportion of grassland coverage on the southern slope is significantly higher than that on the northern slope,and the decreased area proportion of grassland coverage on the northern slope is significantly greater than that on the southern slope.The change characteristics of grassland coverage in the QNNP exhibit an obvious elevation gradient;the higher the elevation,the greater the increased area proportion of grassland coverage,particularly on the SS.The land surface temperature can be used as a proxy for analysing the temporal and spatial variation trends of air temperature in the QNNP.With the increase of the altitude,the land surface temperature rise rate on both the southern slope and northern slope exhibited an increasing trend,and the sensitivity of grassland coverage to temperature rise was higher on the northern slope.The water condition was the decisive factor for the horizontal and vertical spatial heterogeneity of the dynamic change of grassland coverage,and the melting of glaciers and thawing of permafrost were important sources of water for grassland growth in the QNNP.Climate warming promotes the growth of grassland in areas with a sufficient water supply,but adversely affects the growth of grassland in areas with insufficient water supplies,which will be further intensified by human activities.

Meteorological Features at 6523 m of Mt.Qomolangma(Everest)between 1 May and 22 July 2005

Mt. Qomolangma (Everest), the highest mountain peak in the world, has little been studied extensively from a meteorological perspective, mostly because of the remoteness of the region and the re-sultant lack of meteorological data. An automatic weather station (AWS), the highest in the world, was set up on 27 April 2005 at the Ruopula Pass (6523 m asl) on the northern slope of Mt. Qomolangma by the team of integrated scientific expedition to Mt. Qomo-langma. Here its meteorological characteristics were analyzed according to the 10-minute-averaged and 24-hour records of air temperature, relative humidity, air pressure and wind from 1 May to 22 July 2005. It is shown that at 6523 m of Mt. Qomolangma, these meteorological elements display very obvious diurnal variations, and the character of averaged diurnal variation is one-peak-and-one-vale for air tem-perature, one-vale for relative humidity, two-peak-and- two-vale for air pressure, and one-peak with day-night asymmetry for wind speed. In the 83 days, all the air temperature, relative hu-midity and air pressure increased with some dif-ferent fluctuations, while wind speed decreased gradually and wind direction turned from north to south. The variations of relative humidity had great fluctuations and obvious local differences. Then thepaper discusses the reason for the characters of diurnal and daily variations. Compared with the corresponding records in May 1960, 5-day-averaged maximums, minimums and diurnal variations of air temperature in May 2005 were apparently lower.

Hydrological Characteristics of the Rongbuk Glacier Catchment in Mt.Qomolangma Region in the Central Himalayas,China

From 8 April to 11 October in 2005,hydrological observation of the Rongbuk Glacier catchment was carried out in the Mt.Qomolangma (Everest) region in the central Himalayas,China.The results demonstrated that due to its large area with glacier lakes at the tongue of the Rongbuk Glacier,a large amount of stream flow was found at night,which indicates the strong storage characteristic of the Rongbuk Glacier catchment.There was a time lag ranging from 8 to 14 hours between daily discharge peaks and maximum melting (maximum temperature).As melting went on the time lag got shorter.A high correlation was found between the hydrological process and daily temperature during the ablation period.The runoff from April to October was about 80% of the total in the observation period.Compared with the discharge data in 1959,the runoff in 2005 was much more,and the runoff in June,July and August increased by 69%,35% and 14%,respectively.The rising of temperature is a major factor causing the increase in runoff.The discharges from precipitation and snow and ice melting are separated.The discharge induced by precipitation accounts for about 20% of the total runoff,while snow and ice melting for about 80%.

Geodetic Height Determination in 2005 Qomolangma Survey

Determining the geodetic height of Mount Qomolangma was one of the very important missions in the 2005 Qomolangma height survey. There were three GPS networks in the survey: regional GPS crustal deformation network, geodetic GPS control network, and GPS measurement on the mountain summit. Data collection and processing were introduced. The final data processing strategy and reasonable geodetic height were fairly determined based on careful data analysis.

Acceleration of Glacier Mass Loss after 2013 at the Mt.Everest(Qomolangma)

Satellite geodesy is capable of observing glacier height changes and most recent studies focus on the decadal scale due to limitations of data acquisition and precision.Glaciers at the Mt.Everest(Qomolangma),locating at the central Himalaya,have been studied from the 1970s to 2015.Here we obtained TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X images observed in two epochs,a group around 2013 and another in 2017.Together with SRTM observed in 2000,we derived geodetic glacier mass balance between 2000 and 2013 and 2013 and 2017.We proposed two InSAR procedures for deriving the second period,which yields with basically identical results of geodetic glacier mass balance.The differencing between DEMs derived by TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X shows better precision than that between TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X formed DEM and SRTM,and it can capable of providing geodetic glacier mass balance at a sub-decadal scale.Glaciers at the Mt.Everest(Qomolangma)and its surroundings present obvious speeding up in mass loss rates before and after 2013 for both the Chinese and the Nepalese sides.The previous obtained spatial heterogeneous pattern for glacier downwasting between 2000 and 2013 generally kept the same after 2013.Glaciers with lacustrine terminus present the most rapid lost rates.

Preliminary Estimation of Moisture Exchange in Rongbuk Valley on the Northern Slope of Mt. Qomolangma

Using observed wind and water vapor data from June 2006,water vapor exchange between the Rongbuk Valley and its above atmosphere is estimated for the first time.The water vapor level shows a high value from 23-29 June and a low from 12-21 June,which co-incide with the South Asian summer monsoon (SASM) active and break stages,respectively.The water vapor can be strongly injected into the closed region of the Rongbuk Valley from the outside atmosphere,with an average strength of 0.4 g s-1 m-2 in June 2006,given that no evaporation occurred.The air moisture exchange proc-esses can be greatly affected by the SASM evolution through changes in local radiation forcing.

RECENT 200 YEARS CLIMATIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL RECORDS FROM THE FAR EAST RONGBUK ICE CORE, MT. QOMOLANGMA (EVEREST)

During the Sino\|American Expedition to Mt. Qomolangma in May 1997, a 41m ice core was recovered from an elevation of 6500m from the northern branch firn basin of the Far East Rongbuk Glacier in Mt. Everest. The ice core was dated down to 1814 by counting δ 18 O peaks and referring to the variations of β activity and major ion concentrations. The average annual accumulation is 224mm (ice equivalent). Five cold periods and five warm periods have been reconstructed from the ice core for the last 200 years and the general tendency of climatic change is warming, which is agree with the temperature change in the Northern Hemisphere. Also the climatic records in Far East Rongbuk ice core has good agreement with that in the Guliya ice core. This indicates that the climatic changes are consistent in the northwestern and southern Qinghai—Tibetan Plateau, and the ranges of climatic changes are larger in southern Plateau than that in northwestern Plateau. Though the δ 18 O variations has some negatively correlation with precipitation amount for short time scale, these do not effect δ 18 O changes reflecting temperature for long time scale.

CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FOUR KINDS OF WATER IN THE RONGBUK GLACIER BASIN, MOUNT QOMOLANGMA

The chemistry of water samples collected in May of 1997 from snow, lakes, rivers, and spring on the north side of Mt. Qomolangma is reported. The pH value is between 7.35-8.52, the order of which is: lake water>river water>snow. All the samples are alkalinity. The pH values of the surface snow samples are relatively higher than the other China’s glacial regions. The conductivity of the samples is low, varying between 34.8-194?μs/cm. The conductivity values and total concentrations of the samples on the same glacier usually increase with decreasing altitude, but ones of the surface snow samples are converse for topographical causes. The anions are determined, the SO 2- 4 concentration is the highest in river and lake samples; in the surface snow samples, the Cl - concentration is the highest. Among the cations of all the samples, the Ca 2+ concentration is the highest. The relationships between SO 2- 4, Mg 2+ , F -, Ca 2+ , conductivity and the total concentrations show the increasing trend. On the other side, the conductivity, F -, Ca 2+ , the total concentration, SO 2- 4 and Mg 2+ of the river water samples all increase with decreasing altitude.