Dr. Baker Perry, a professor at App State, is doing his best to harness the spirit of his school’s sports teams, the Mountaineers.
Perry, who co-led expeditions on Mount Everest in recent years, climbed yet another giant mountain in the name of science: Nevado Ausangate in southern Peru.
“Nevado Ausangate is one of the most critical mountains in the high Andes as it serves as the primary freshwater source for Andean and downstream ecosystems,” said Perry in a press release from National Geographic Society.
Perry and fellow National Geographic Explorer Tom Matthews—aided by a local Peruvian Quechua team and Indigenous climbing experts Las Cholitas Escaladoras—helped build the new station just below the mountain’s summit. At 20,830 feet (about twice the height of Mount Saint Helens in Washington), it’s now the highest weather station in the tropical Andes. The station installation is part of National Geographic Society’s Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition, a two-year exploration of the Amazon basin spanning the Andes to the Atlantic.
The tropical high Andes of southern Peru holds what are called essential water towers, water trapped in snowpacks and glaciers. That water supports the natural environment and communities from the glacier margins to the Amazon basin.
“The Nevado Ausangate is the source of life that we have for this region of Cusco,” said Santos Huaman, mayor of Chilca, the Peruvian township encompassing much of the Ausangate Valley. “This new weather station will help us to understand how much snow is melting, why and how we recover it. It’s extremely important to our community.”
Because Nevado Ausangate is a vital part of the water supply for the Amazon basin, it’s important to understand the weather processes driving its climate and glacier behavior. The new weather station collects near real-time data such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, radiation and snow depth. That information will help local officials and scientists better understand the impacts of climate change on critical water resources that affect the entire Amazon basin.
“It is essential that we use weather observations from the highest peaks in the world to better understand the impacts that climate change is having on local and global communities,” said Perry. “The changes happening on Ausangate are especially important in understanding the fluctuations and adaptations of the entire Amazon River Watershed.”
While on the mountain, researchers also took atmospheric measurements, recorded the depth of the snowpack and collected core samples. Part of the snowpack will be studied to look for microplastics. While the mountain and surrounding area are considered pristine, any microplastics discovered in the snowpack would be a sign of long-distance atmospheric transport. That means the microplastics are carried by winds from far away.
The Nevado Ausangate weather station complements the highest weather station installed in the southern and western hemispheres, near the summit of the Tupungato Volcano in Chile.
Data from the two sites will help researchers characterize the extreme climate at the highest elevations in the Andes.
Learn more about Dr. Perry’s Everest adventures here.