PO_me_8-1_ScienceNowMap

Interactive Script for Translation

Ana Camila Benitez / JoAnn Gutin

Base layer labels:

  • To Argentina and Chile
  • To Africa
  • To Australia and New Zealand
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Indian Ocean
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Drake Passage
  • Weddell Sea
  • Haakon VII Sea
  • Davis Sea
  • Mawson Sea
  • Dumont D’Urville Sea
  • Ross Sea
  • Amundsen Sea
  • Bellinghausen Sea

Attract loop labels:

  • Day and night section: JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN
  • Routes and pole map: SOUTH POLE 90o S, Framheim, Cape Evans, MAGNETIC POLE 1910,MAGNETIC POLE 2005
  • Station map: BelgranoII, Halley Research Station, Neumayer Station, Sanae IV, Troll Station, Maitri Station, Novolazarevskaya Station, Princess Elisabeth Station, Showa Station, Molodyozhnaya Station, Dome Fuji Station, Mawson Station, Zhongshan Station, Davis Station, Amundsen-Scott Station, Mirny Station, Concordia Station, Casey Station, Dumont D’Urville Station, Leningradskaya Station, Mc.Murdo Station, Scott Base, Siple Station, Rothera Research Station, San Martin Base, Vernadsky Research Base, Palmer Station, St. Kliment Ohridski Base, Captain Arturo Pratt Base, Base Eduardo Frei, Bellingshausen Station, Profesor Julio Escudero Base, King Sejong Station, Henryk Arctowski Station, Comandante Ferraz, Jubani, Artigas, Esperanza Base, Marambio Base, Bernardo O’Higgins Station, Great Wall Station.

Layer 1: Extreme Continent

Extreme Continent [label deck intro]

Antarctica is unique. Overall, no continent on Earth is as cold, as high, as windy, as dry. Covered by ice averaging 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) thick and isolated by a powerful ocean current, it is mostly uninhabited.

  • SEA ICE

Text adjacent to button on label deck

  • Every fall and winter, the amount of sunlight falling on Antarctica decreases. As the surrounding ocean chills, it develops a coating of sea ice. In spring, as the sun returns, the sea ice begins to retreat.

Animation

  • Five seasons of sea ice advance and retreat, while a timeline shows the date corresponding to the extent of ice coverage shown.
  • Labels:JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC; 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

Onscreen text:

  • As winter proceeds, the ice thickens—to up to 6 feet (2 m)--and expands north at about 2.5 miles (4 km) a day
  • By the end of winter, in October, sea ice has, in effect, doubled the size of Antarctica.
  • As the Sun returns, sea ice retreats
  • KATABATIC WINDS

Text adjacent to button on label deck

  • Ferocious winds scour many areas of Antarctica. These “katabatic” (CAT-uh-BAT-ick) winds occur when dense, frigid air builds up on the polar plateau. Katabatic wind speeds are highest in winter, when air is coldest.

Animation

  • Winds represented by moving arrows on map of continent; inset diagrammatic animation shows movement in cross-section

Onscreen text:

  • Katabatic winds come in bursts.
  • Air gets heavier as it cools in contact with ice
  • It gathers speed as is slides down the slope,
  • reaching an average of 45 mph (km/h)
  • Katabatic winds can be as fast as 185 mph (300 km/h)!
  • Once the polar plateau is drained of these pockets of cold air, wind stops.
  • OCEAN/STORMS/CIRCUMPOLAR CURRENT

Text adjacent to button on label deck

  • Ocean currents are like great rivers in the ocean. The current circling Antarctica is the most powerful “ocean river” on the planet. This swirling moat of cold water has isolated Antarctica for about 30 million years. Strong winds from the west drive it.

Animation

  • Arrows represent circumpolar current; overlay satellite image of storm systems.

Onscreen text:

  • The current is about 12,400 miles (20,000 km) long.
  • Every second, it moves more than 100 times as much water as all the rivers in the world.
  • With no land in the way to interrupt the movement of wind and water, gales and monster waves are frequent.
  • ICEBERGS

Text adjacent to button on label deck

  • Icebergs are spawned by ice shelves, floating sheets of ice that fringe Antarctica. Shelves form as the ice sheet flows outward under its own weight. Icebergs naturally form as the edges of ice shelves crumble under the force of ocean movement.

Animation:

  • Inset video of iceberg breaking off, drifting.

Onscreen text: scrolls as images change

  • Bergs can be huge—this one [B-15] was 14300 square miles (11,000 km2) in area. That’s about the size of the island of Jamaica.
  • Eventually, over a period of several months, B-15 broke in two and drifted northward.

Layer 2:Exposed Continent

Exposed Continent [Label Deck Intro]

If you could peel back Antarctica’s ice, what would you see? Scientists using remote- controlled planes with ice-penetrating radar and other tools have mapped a dramatic and mysterious hidden landscape.

  • TWO LANDMASSES

Text adjacent to button on label deck

  • Antarctica is really two distinct landmasses. East Antarctica is a “shield”—a dome of very ancient rocks within a continent. Geologically younger West Antarctica has a more diverse origin, formed in part by the same mountain-building processes that created the Andes.

Animation

  • Ice sheet being virtually lifted from land; topography revealed.

Onscreen text:

  • Experts think the Antarctic ice sheets hold enough water to raise global sea level 200 feet (65 m).
  • Though connected by ice, East and West Antarctica are distinct landmasses.
  • BURIED MOUNTAINS

Text adjacent to button on label deck

  • Fifty years ago, scientists were stunned to discover a mountain range, the Gamburtsevs, completely buried under the ice. Now, new imaging has revealed not just high peaks but deep valleys, in a landscape some compare to the European Alps.

Animation

  • Diagramatic animation inset showing how the mountains are scanned.

Onscreen text:

  • The Gamburtsev mountains, a range 750 miles (1200 km) in extent, lie under the ice
  • To visualize the hidden landscape, scientists use wing-mounted radar.
  • Radar waves penetrate the ice
  • …and bounce back from the denser land surface.
  • Elapsed time reveals height of surface.
  • Highest peak:8,000 feet (2,500 m)
  • Maximum ice cover: 16,000 feet (4,800 m)
  • MANY LAKES

Text adjacent to button on label deck

  • An interconnected network of lakes, large and small, is now being discovered under the polar ice sheet. Because liquid water lubricates the ice sheets, understanding the drainage system will help scientists understand ice sheet movement.

Animation

  • Overview map for location of lakes; inset for mechanics of stepwise filling, overflow of lakes and ice-sheet motion

Onscreen text:

  • Many newly discovered lakes are relatively small and close to the coasts.
  • Under-ice lakes can drain into one another, creating streams.
  • These streams make the glacier speed up, or surge.
  • LAKE VOSTOK

Text adjacent to button on label deck

  • Lake Vostok is the largest of Antarctica’s under-ice lakes, sealed for millions of years. Scientists searching for new microbial organisms want to drill down to this pristine environment but must be careful to avoid contaminating it.

Animation:

  • Diagramatic animation inset of cross-section of ice-sheet with lake at bottom showing where the water comes from.

Onscreen text:

  • A lake 150 miles (250 km) long lies underneath the ice.
  • Where did the water come from?
  • 33,000 feet (1,000 m) deep
  • 2 miles (4 km) of ice
  • Heat from Earth’s interior melts the ice.
  • The ice sheet acts like a blanket, capturing the heat.
  • Scientists are drilling with extreme caution toward the pristine environment.

Layer 3: Changing Continent

Changing Continent [Label Deck Intro]

Why are the poles vulnerable to climate change? Ice and snow reflect solar radiation, but land and ocean absorb it. As temperatures rise, ice shrinks at the poles, exposing more land and ocean—which causes more warming.

  • ICE COLLAPSE

Text adjacent to button on label deck

  • Ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula seem to be collapsing more often, and more quickly, than in the past. Ice shelves are already floating, but because they dam the flow of glaciers to the sea, their loss may speed sea-level rise.

Animation

  • Satellite time-lapse of breakup of Larsen B

Onscreen text: scrolls as images change

  • Larsen B dramatically lost about 4,600 square miles (12,000 km2) of its mass in early 2002.
  • That is enough ice to cover the U.S. State of Connecticut!
  • ICE THINNING

Text adjacent to button on label deck

  • A warming climate is making the vast land-based Antarctic ice sheet behave in ways that concern experts, because of its potential to raise seal level worldwide. It is moving faster and thinning in some places.

Animation

  • Diagramatic animation inset showing how the ice sheet thins when an ice shelf collapses.

Onscreen text:

  • Gravity forces the ice downhill.
  • The glacier accelerates toward the sea
  • and the ice sheet thins, like pulled taffy.
  • An Ice Shelf collapse
  • creates a steep, unstable slope.
  • HABITAT LOSS

Text adjacent to button on label deck

  • Adélie penguins have been abandoning their most northerly breeding grounds over the past 30 years. Is their movement a range shift due to climate change, a natural fluctuation in the always dynamic Antarctic environment, a human-caused ecosystem disruption . . .or a combination? Experts differ.

Animation

  • Video of penguins feeding off of the ice shelf.

Onscreen text:

  • Penguins dive for food from sea ice, but sea ice has shrunk in some regions. Is this why birds in those areas are abandoning breeding grounds?
  • Or is local penguin decline due to ecosystem disruption caused by past and present whaling and overfishing?