The station would be set up in the first half of 2005 on the flat flood plain near Base Camp, 5,200 meters (17,160 feet) above sea level on the northern slope of the world's tallest mountain, Xinhua news agency said.

The station would mainly be 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 Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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

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