A day in Antarctica – Virtual Reality Special

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Since the early days of polar exploration, public outreach has been an important duty of the few ones who could report from the icy world. Logbooks from whalers, diaries from individual expedition members and even their published work sold like hot cakes.

A sketch of the glaciological features of the Priestley Glacier

Visitors of the polar regions thereby used the latest technology that was available to them to best describe what they experienced in this remote part of our planet. Pencil sketches were replaced with detailed drawings, which were later replaced with colorful paintings. Paintings were then replaced by photos. Photography developed to video, but what comes next?

In an attempt to bring our expedition as close as possible to the scientifically interested community, I was kindly provided with a state-of-the-art 360 degree video camera. Please sit back and enjoy what came out of it (see above). For the true Antarctic experience (or until videos can also make you feel the freezing temperatures), I suggest sitting in your fridge!

Special thanks to my friends Rob Lindeman and Kris Tong from HIT Lab NZ for their support to show you a little piece of our journey. Sorry for low def, working on it…

PS: To answer the question what was the weirdest thing that I have experienced in Antarctica… talking to a selfie-stick in the middle of nowhere made me really wonder!

Christian Wild is an ice-scientist at Gateway Antarctica, who is focusing on Antarctic ice shelves and their interaction with the ocean.