World's highest webcam brings Everest to Internet

World's highest webcam brings Everest to Internet

  8:54:00 PM    Science Lover

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The world's highest webcam has been installed in the Nepalese Himalayas, beaming live images of Mount Everest back to scientists studying the effects of climate change on the planet's tallest peak.

This undated image released by German surveillance firm Mobotix shows two scientists from the Ev-K2 National Research Council installing a solar-powered webcam to film Mt. Everest from the summit of the nearby Mt. Kala Patthar. The webcam will beam images of Everest across the web which could provide vital clues on the effects of climate change on the Himalayas.

The solar-powered camera, set at 5,675 metres (18,618 feet) on Kala Patthar, a smaller mountain facing Everest, will withstand temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit) and operates during daylight hours.

The device, developed by German surveillance firm Mobotix, is more than a kilometre higher than the previous record for a high-altitude webcam set by a 4,389-metre-altitude camera at the base camp of Mount Aconcagua in Argentina.

"We spent months developing the perfect set-up for the installation and invested a lot of time testing and verifying the system," said Giampietro Kohl of Ev-K2-CNR, the mountain research group which installed the camera.

"It inspired us on to set a record: operating the highest webcam in the world."

The webcam operates from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm Nepalese time (0015 to 1215 GMT) from the Kala Patthar summit, recording stunning images of 8,848-metre Mount Everest as well as the South Col.

The image is updated every five minutes, allowing climatologists to track the movement of the clouds around the mountain's summit.

"Researchers selected Kala Patthar as the camera location because it offers an excellent view of the western side of Mount Everest, including the north and southwest faces of the mountain and the West Ridge," a spokesman for Mobotix said in a statement.

This undated image released by German surveillance firm Mobotix shows
scientists from the Ev-K2 National Research Council installing a solar
powered webcam at the summit of Mt. Kala Patthar. The webcam operates
from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm Nepalese time from the Kala Patthar summit,
recording stunning images of 8,848-metre Mt. Everest as well as the
South Col.

The camera, which went live in September, uses a wireless connection to transmit images to the Ev-K2-CNR Pyramid Laboratory, located at an altitude of 5,050 metres.

The footage is then analysed by scientists in Italy who hope to learn more about climate change and global warming using the images in conjunction with meteorological data gathered from Everest.

The exact height of the world's tallest peak is also being re-measured in a separate Nepali project attempting to end confusion on the issue.

The mountain, which straddles Nepal and China, is generally thought to stand at 8,848 metres after an Indian survey in 1954, but other more recent measurements have varied by several metres.

Last year, officials from Nepal and China reached a compromise under which Nepal measured the height of Everest's snowcap at 8,848 metres and China measured the rock peak at 8,844 metres.

The final result will be known in two years' time after reference points are set up on Everest and then global-positioning system satellites are used to calculate the precise measurement.

The first measurement of Everest was made in 1856. It was conquered in 1953 by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, and has since been climbed by more than 3,000 people. 

Images from the world's highest webcam can be seen at:http://www.evk2cnr.org/WebCams/PyramidOne/everest-webcam.html

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Hundreds Of New Species Discovered In Eastern Himalayas

Hundreds Of New Species Discovered In Eastern Himalayas

  8:15:00 PM    Science Lover

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Over 350 new species including the world’s smallest deer, a “flying frog” and a 100 million-year old gecko have been discovered in the Eastern Himalayas, a biological treasure trove now threatened by climate change.

Flying frog (Rhacophorus suffry). The bright green, red-footed tree frog was described in 2007. It is a 'flying frog' because long webbed feet allow the species to glide when falling. (Credit: Copyright Totul Bortamuli / WWF Nepal)

A decade of research carried out by scientists in remote mountain areas endangered by rising global temperatures brought exciting discoveries such as a bright green frog that uses its red and long webbed feet to glide in the air.

One of the most significant findings was not exactly “new” in the classic sense. A 100-million year-old gecko, the oldest fossil gecko species known to science, was discovered in an amber mine in the Hukawng Valley in the northern Myanmar.

The WWF report The Eastern Himalayas – Where Worlds Collide details discoveries made by scientists from various organizations between 1998 and 2008 in a region reaching across Bhutan and north-east India to the far north of Myanmar as well as Nepal and southern parts of Tibet Autonomus Region (China).

“The good news of this explosion in species discoveries is tempered by the increasing threats to the Himalayas’ cultural and biological diversity,” said Jon Miceler, Director of WWF’s Eastern Himalayas Program. “This rugged and remarkable landscape is already seeing direct, measurable impacts from climate change and risks being lost forever.”

In December world leaders will gather in Copenhagen to reach an agreement on a new climate deal, which will replace the existing Kyoto Protocol.

The Eastern Himalayas- Where Worlds Collide describes more than 350 new species discovered - including 244 plants, 16 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 14 fish, 2 birds, 2 mammals and at least 60 new invertebrates.

The report mentions the miniature muntjac, also called the “leaf deer,” which is the world’s oldest and smallest deer species. Scientists initially believed the small creature found in the world’s largest mountain range was a juvenile of another species but DNA tests confirmed the light brown animal with innocent dark eyes was a distinct and new species.

The Eastern Himalayas harbor a staggering 10,000 plant species, 300 mammal species, 977 bird species, 176 reptiles, 105 amphibians and 269 types of freshwater fish. The region also has the highest density of Bengal tigers in the world and is the last bastion of the charismatic greater one-horned rhino.

WWF is working to conserve the habitat of endangered species such as snow leopards, Bengal tigers, Asian elephants, red pandas, takin, golden langurs, Gangetic dolphins and one-horned rhinos.

Historically, the rugged and largely inaccessible landscape of the Eastern Himalayas has made biological surveys in the region extremely difficult. As a result, wildlife has remained poorly surveyed and there are large areas that are still biologically unexplored.

Today further species continue to be unearthed and many more species of amphibians, reptiles and fish are currently in the process of being officially named by scientists.

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