A Tourist Expedition to Antarctica

Antarctic-related Internet information resources

Clearinghouse approved

I decided early on in my travel planning to see how much I could learn about Antarctica using Internet tools. This lists gives hyperlinks to some of the more interesting things I found, and searches very much like those I used.

To compile this list, I used the Archie search system to search for information available on anonymous FTP sites, and then retrieved everything I found. I also used the Veronica search system to search for information on Gopher servers and added them to this list as links. I also used a number of World Wide Web searching services, including the JumpStation, W3Catalog, Yahoo, and Lycos.

Most importantly, I've received plenty of tips about other Antarctic-related Internet information services from other people who have either worked in Antarctica or who are interested in Antarctica.

Last updated: April 12, 1996

Major Antarctic information sites

• International Centre for Antarctic Information and Research (ICAIR), New Zealand
• Virtual Antarctica, the pilot expedition of TerraQuest, a joint venture of Mountain Travel Sobek and WorldTravel Partners.

International Antarctic program offices

• The National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs (U.S.A.)
• Antarctic Support Associates (ASA), contractors for NSF's operations in Antarctica
• New information from ASA (still under construction as of 10/23/95)
• The Australian Antarctic Division, which manages Australia's Antarctic program
• The Belgian Antarctic Research Program
• The British Antarctic Survey
• The Italian Antarctic Program
• Norsk Polarinstitutt, the Norwegian Polar Institute

Research Organizations

• The Byrd Polar Research Center at The Ohio State University
• The Institute for Computational Earth System Science (ICESS), University of California, Santa Barbara (researchers at Palmer Station)
• The Scott Polar Research Institute's World Data Center C (Glaciology), University of Cambridge, U.K.
• The Cooperative Research Centre for the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Environment (CRC), University of Tasmania, Australia
• The Joint Australian Centre for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica (JACARA)
• The Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany

First-hand reports and memoranda

• A Journalist's Guide to the South Pole, a travel journal and photo galleries from Univeristy of Chicago Science Writer Diana Steele's trip to Antarctica
• Ethan Dicks' Antarctic home page
• The New South Polar Times: bi-weekly newsletter written by Lt. Tom Jacobs, a staff member at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, South Pole, Antarctica
• The South Pole Observatory
• Svein Yngvar Willassen's Polar Regions page, which includes some beautiful photos from Queen Maude Land
• The NASA "Live from Antarctica" program's WWW server (Lots of neat stuff here!)
• Some letters from Paul Smith of the Casey Research Station to the students of Elaine Wynn Elementary School (I don't know where that is -- try the README file)
• New letters from Paul Smith, dated 11/12/93
• Toby Everett's Great Antarctic Adventure: a report from his four month travels in Antarctica through NSF and Boy Scouts of America
• E-mail messages from Peter Amati, aboard an icebreaker off Antarctica from 05/21/92 through 05/30/92
• An NSF Environmental Action Memorandum reminding researchers about the prohibitions against house plants on Antarctica
• NSF's Antarctica Environmental Action Memoranda (gopher server)

Research reports

• Antarctic Peninsula Neotectonics and Volcanism, from the research team of Larry Lawver. This resource includes weekly updates and photos from a December 1995 research expedition on the Nathaniel B. Palmer.
• WDCC Glaciology "ICE and SNOW" database, a searchable index of Antarctic research reports
• The New Zealand, Australian, and United States Antarctic Program reports, from ICAIR
• A WWW exhibit on geological studies performed at McMurdo Station by M.C. Malin, 1993-94
• A report for LTER from R. Ross and L. Quetin of Palmer Station, 1991
• A working copy of Continuity and change in cooperative international regimes: the politics of the recent environment debate in Antarctica by Lorraine M. Elliott, June 1991

News articles

• An interview by GNN Personal Finance Editor Abbott Chambers (a former SILS student!) with John Sherve, Resident Manager at McMurdo Station: "Signals from Antarctica: An Interview with John Sherve"
• GNN's report about NASA's TROL work at McMurdo station
• An NSF press release discussing fossilized forest remains on Antarctica, November 6, 1992
• An NSF press release announcing the 36th anniversary of NSF Antarctica research, September 14, 1992
• Tables of Contents for the Antarctica Journal of the United States (gopher server)

Images

• An Infrared weather map of Antarctica, updated every three hours, from Michigan State's weather map service. Original images come from the University of Wisconsin Space Science and Engineering Center.
• Toby Everett's maps of Antarctica (from NSF)
• A PostScript elevation map of Antarctica (not quite sure of the source on this one)
• Satellite images of Antarctica from the Galileo, taken on December 8, 1990
• Images of Christchurch, from a WWW exhibit on New Zealand by Michael Witbrock of Carnegie Mellon University.

General information

• Antarctic entry in the CIA World Fact Book
• The Antarctic Treaty of 1959
• Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (1991)
• Some general information... (I'm not sure where this came from, but I found plenty of versions of this around in various formats.)
• The Mawson Antarctic Collection Appeal (Australia): An appeal to the public for support in establishing an archival collection related to Sir Douglas Mawson, Antarctic Explorer
• A funny cartoon by Doctor Fun
• A more recent cartoon by Doctor Fun
• GNN's Travel Resource Center, where I found the weather maps above.

Searches

• Output from an archie search I did on 08/01/93
• Output from an archie search I did on 01/21/94
• A Veronica search for Internet information resources about Antarctica.

Book lists

• Books that I've read
• Books that Orient Lines recommended we read
• Related books available from the Adventurous Travel Bookstore (on-line)