Mount Everest Webcam Is World's Highest

Curious as to what's happening at the top of Mount Everest? Tune in to the world's highest webcam and you could find out for yourself, without having to strap on heavy-duty boots and goggles. The Mobotix M12 camera was installed by Italy's Ev-K2-CNR scientific committee as part of a Nepalese government project, running on solar power at the top of the 5,675m high Kala Patthar summit.According to Mobotix, the camera is having to cope with minus 30-degree Centigrade temperatures, and is only operational between 6am and 6pm Nepalese time because of the sunlight requirement. Footage is transmitted wirelessly to the nearby laboratory and observatory, before being shuttled off to Italian research labs to be analyzed.

While giving the lazy an easy way of checking out Everest's West Ridge, as well as the north and southwest faces of the mountain, the webcam has more scientific ambitions too. Researchers hope to use it to track evidence of climate change and global warming, pairing it with temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, sunlight and precipitation data from the 8,000m high weather station near the top of Everest itself.

You can access the streaming feed here; it's updated every 5 minutes.

[via Gizmag]