Dear *{{Informal Name}}*,
A few years ago, I had the honor of custom-building wind sensors for two weather stations on Mount Everest. Now, I am excited to share that a third MWOBS instrument is recording wind speed data on the highest mountain in the Americas.
On February 18, climatologist, professor, and National Geographic Explorer Dr. Baker Perry led an expedition to install a series of stations on Mount Aconcagua, Argentina.
Perry, fellow National Geographic Explorer Tom Matthews, and their crew deployed five new observation sites to provide data about water availability in the Andes Centrales, a region severely impacted by a 15-year mega-drought. The project resulted from collaboration between the U.S. and Argentina with support from key partners.
We were thrilled to support this expedition as one of several instrumentation partners—including RM Young and Campbell Scientific—to help scientists better understand high alpine and extreme environments through instrument innovation.
Being asked to join a project of this scale is a testament to the Observatory’s namesake, Home of the World’s Worst Weather, and an affirmation of our unique role as a staffed weather station—an international hub for research and learning that you make possible.
In the short film below, you can learn more about Project Wayra (“Wayra” means “wind” in Quecha, an Andean indigenous language) and its importance to monitoring Aconcagua’s natural systems. Ellen Estabrook has also written a new impact story about the Observatory’s role in the expedition.
Thank you for being a part of our work in understanding Earth’s critical high alpine resources. Where will weather discovery take us next?
Sincerely,
