Ice Worlds

A full-dome planetarium show, Ice Worlds explores the Earth's polar icecaps and draws parallels with ice on planets and moons elsewhere in the solar system. Planetary Visions worked with the lastest satellite image and terrain data from Antarctica to produce four stunning immersive animation sequences.

As well as cutting through the Antarctic Icecap to reveal the bedrock beneath, the sequences show flights over the Antarctic Peninsula, the Ross Sea and Mount Erebus. Paleoclimate data and seafloor depth is used to show how the coastline of the British Isles has changed since the last ice age.

These sequences were produced at full 4K resolution (4000x4000 pixels), 60 frames per second, in hemispheric geometry (360x180 degrees) for the Digistar 3 full-dome projection system.

Ice Worlds is produced by Evans & Sutherland Digital Theater Division and the Houston Museum of Natural Science, with science support from the University of New Hampshire, and funding from the National Science Foundation as a contribution to International Polar Year. It was premiered at the International Planetarium Society Conference, Chicago, June 27 - July 3, 2008, and is showing in the UK at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich from May 16, 2009.