An Italian project to build the world's highest climate station got cracking this week when mountaineers received the national flag that will eventually adorn the structure.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano handed over the 'tricolore' in a ceremony at Rome, attended by the team of scientists and mountaineers that has been developing the station for the last two years.
''We will get it to Everest by either June 2, which is Italy's national day, or by June 5, which is World Environment Day,'' said project leader Agostino Da Polenza, one of the world's most respected high-altitude scientists.
The project, launched in 2006, envisions the highest atmospheric and environmental monitoring station in the world, at 8,000 metres' altitude.
Over the last two years, the Ev-K2-CNR Committee running the scheme has hauled tonnes of sensitive measuring equipment up Everest by hand.
In May last year, the six-person team published its first results based on new data, warning of a worrying spread of pollution.
In a few days' time, the group embarks on a fresh expedition to Everest, where it will continue building the station and analysing atmospheric conditions.
The mountaineers had originally planned to return to the site from the Tibetan side, making the first south-north crossing without oxygen.
But with the Tibetan side of Everest closed to foreigners following the crisis in the area, the team has been forced to map out a different route.
The goals of the expedition are nevertheless unique, stressed the team's technical leader, Giampietro Verza.
''The first and most complex of these is completing the climate station on the South Col of Everest at 8,000 metres' altitude,'' he said.
''We will then have to place a temperature sensor at the top of Everest''.
The complex will be split into four systems, each gathering different data about air, wind, solar radiation and precipitation.
New equipment being installed this year will allow the scientists to track the movement of Asia's Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC) - the smog created by industrial emissions from the fast-proliferating smoke stacks of China and India.
Commenting on the ABC project, on which the Italian team are collaborating with the UN Environmental Programme, UNEP regional director said the station was crucial.
''These clouds have become a global problem, in that they now shift from one continent to the other with a clear impact on the atmosphere,'' said Christophe Bouvier.
The atmospheric station is linked to Italy's so-called 'Everest Pyramid', which stands at 5050 metres at the base of the Nepali side of Everest.
The glass and aluminium Pyramid is an innovative research and observation centre first conceived by the late Ardito Desio, a world mountaineering legend.
Since completion in 1990, the Pyramid has hosted over 60 environmental, medical and technological research projects.
