China will set up two more comprehensive weather- monitoring stations on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, another step toward the goal of establishing 23 stations on the plateau, said Yao Tandong, director of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Sometimes called "the third pole", the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has gained growing attention because of its significant role in global atmospheric circulation and its sensitivity to climate change.

China has about 10 monitoring stations on the plateau so far, said Yao. However, it is still too few to cover the area of more than 2.4 million square kilometers.