China will build a modern meteorological observatory system in the next five years in Tibet to cover all the blank areas of observation.

Qin Dahe, head of the National Meteorological Bureau (NMB), told a conference in Beijing Monday that China will deploy a new generation of weather radars in Lhasa and other places, build automatic meteorological stations in northwestern Tibet and set up a vertical weather observation system in southeast Tibet, where meteorological stations are extremely scarce.

The NMB will promote the application of satellite technologies, including setting up ground stations in Lhasa, Xigaze and Qamdo.

It will also build a databank of Tibet's meteorological records and upgrade the transmission network of meteorological data, among other things.

Weather changes on the Tibetan plateau have a major impact on East Asia, especially on weather disasters in China, meteorologists said.

(People's Daily 08/28/2001)