Installing the World's Highest Weather Station with Professor Baker Perry, PhD
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2020
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Co-lead of the meteorology team on the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Extreme Expedition and professor in the Department of Geography at Appalachian State University, Baker Perry, joins the show to discuss his fascinating and truly unique work.
Tune in to discover:
- How the recently-installed weather stations on Mt. Everest are filling a critical role in climber safety
- What has been learned about the intensity of solar radiation on the mountain and why this is important for projected glacier changes and current models used to make those projections
- Which new insight gained from the implementation of these weather stations might explain the incidence of climber disappearance on Mt. Everest
- How the data sets from these stations can take viewers on a virtual reality trip into the glacier for an immersive, once-in-a-lifetime experience
On Tuesday, June 30, 2020 at 10pm ET on National Geographic, you can watch the television premier of Expedition Everest, an unprecedented journey that resulted in the installation of the world's highest weather stations and the collection of the highest ice core known to man.
Baker Perry shares firsthand experience as co-lead of this incredible mission, offering you a glimpse of what it would be like to make the climb yourself. By virtue of Perry and the rest of the expedition team, real-time weather data from the mountain and past and future projections of glacier change is now possible. This not only changes the game for climbing safety, but paves the way for significant improvements to forecast and glacier change models, as well as a better understanding of how the climate is changing.
Perry explains the reasoning behind the placements of the weather stations, the challenges encountered as they gained elevation, what types of equipment and instrumentation were used, and so much more.
Learn more and access real-time data links to these weather stations by visiting https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/perpetual-planet/.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Forget frequently asked questions. |
| 0:02.0 | Common sense, common knowledge, or Google. |
| 0:05.0 | How about advice from a real genius? |
| 0:07.0 | 95% of people in any profession are good enough to be qualified and licensed. |
| 0:11.0 | 5% go above and beyond. They become very good at what they do, but only 0.1% are real Jesus. |
| 0:18.0 | Richard Jacobs has made it his life's mission to find them for you. He hunts down and interviews geniuses in every field, |
| 0:25.0 | sleep science, cancer, stem cells, ketogenic diets, and more. Here come the geniuses. |
| 0:30.3 | This is the Finding Genius Podcast. |
| 0:33.0 | That is Richard Jacobs. |
| 0:35.0 | Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius Podcast. |
| 0:41.0 | Today, my guests are Baker Perry. He's a co-lead of the |
| 0:44.6 | meteorology team on the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet |
| 0:48.8 | Everest expedition. He was on the high-altitude climbing team that installed the world's highest weather station. |
| 0:55.0 | Perry is a professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. |
| 1:01.0 | He's led or co-led 21 research expeditions in the Tropical Andes and along with local |
| 1:06.8 | collaborators he's installed and maintained five meteorological stations at an elevation |
| 1:11.9 | 5,000 meters. which quick calculation is probably about 18,000 feet, |
| 1:17.0 | so that's pretty high up. |
| 1:18.0 | And then Tom Matthews, he's also a National Geographic Explorer, or was the co-lead of a meteorology team, |
| 1:24.4 | on National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition as well. |
| 1:29.2 | He was on the high-altitude climbing team that also installed some of these weather stations, the highest in the world. Altitude is a climate |
| 1:33.4 | team that also installed some of these weather stations, |
... |
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