Digital Immersion Into the Fate of Antarctic's Ice and What it Means to the Rest of the World

May 18, 2017

The New York Times has published a package of digital and virtual-reality segments, called "Antarctic Dispatches", on its website that exposes viewers to the visceral experience of doing science on the southernmost continent.

The package of content looks at the current state and potential future of the #Antarctic ice sheet; allows readers to peel away the ice sheet digitally to see the terrain below and sends them on a scientific flight over the ice sheet in an LC-130 aircraft flown by the 109th Airlift Wing of the N.Y. Air National Guard.

The virtual-reality package offers a scuba dive under Antarctic ice, a ride in a helicopter through the McMurdo Dry Valleys, home to NSF's McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research site, and a tour of NSF's McMurdo Station.

The content, which quotes NSF-funded researchers Robin Bell, from Columbia University in the City of New York, and Robert M. DeConto, of UMass Amherst is available here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/18/climate/antarctica-ice-melt-climate-change.html

Three, of an eventual four, virtual-reality segments are available here now: https://nytimes.com/antarcticavr.

The virtual reality content is available on the web but is viewed at its best by downloading a Times smartphone app.