An open Tibetan Plateau atmospheric environment laboratory has been built in Tibet, the roof of the world, with an investment of 10 million yuan by Jiangxi Province. It is one of the 70 projects listed at the 4th central conference on Tibetan work to be accomplished with the aids of provinces and municipalities in other parts of the country.

The construction on the laboratory began in June of 2001. It covers the construction of an open-field observatory base in Ari, the environmental improvement in the environs of the laboratory, the introduction of a satellite ground reception and processing equipment of the EOS from the United States and the construction of the laboratory's computer analysis system and network.

Tibet is geologically complicated with a capricious weather. The laboratory will help upgrade the observation of the atmospheric environment in the western part of Tibet. Satellite remote-sensing technology will be used to monitor and study the ecology and atmospheric environment in Tibet. All kinds of natural disasters such as forest fire, drought, snowstorm, flooding and desertification will be brought under close watch. This will fill up the blank in the meteorological remote-sensing data in the barren west of Tibet.

Suolang Duoji, director of the Tibetan Meteorological Bureau, said, "to introduce and train high-caliber scientific personnel in atmospheric environment will be the key." The work will be carried out in a planned way so as to make the laboratory a center of plateau atmospheric environment and a training base in China.

(www.cenews.com.cn November 18, 2002)!r