Hong Kong sees world's first accredited centennial upper air observing station

HONG KONG, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The upper air observing station of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) became the world's first centennial upper air observing station accredited by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the HKO announced on Thursday.

The WMO began commending meteorological stations that maintain high-quality meteorological measurements as well as properly archive historical documents and long-term observation data in different parts of the world through an accreditation mechanism since 2017. So far, about 300 observing stations with 100 years of history or more have been accredited by the WMO.

The upper air observing station of the HKO located at King's Park in Kowloon was accredited by the WMO in June this year, and is the first centennial upper air observing station so accredited in the world.

Long-term meteorological observations are crucial for documenting and analyzing the earth's climate change, which help drive the development of climate research, according to the HKO.

In 2017, the surface observing station at the HKO Headquarters was also accredited by the WMO as one of the first batch of centennial observing stations.