FROZEN: The Full Story

  • Released Thursday, June 25, 2015
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On March 27, 2009, NASA released FROZEN, a twelve-minute show about the Earth's frozen regions designed for Science On a Sphere. Science On a Sphere was created by NOAA and displays movies on a spherical screen, which is ideal for a show about the Earth or the planets. The audience can view the show from any side of the sphere and can see any part of the Earth. Making a movie for this system is challenging, and FROZEN was an exciting project to create. Until now, only the "trailer" for FROZEN has been available for viewing from our site. Here, for the first time, is an on-line version of the complete show, presented in several different formats that show different aspects of the movie.

This version of FROZEN simulates the experience of two separate viewers on opposite sides of the sphere. Sometimes the two viewers see the same thing, but most of the time they see different parts of the Earth.

Complete transcript available.


This video is also available on our YouTube channel.

This is the full frame version of FROZEN. This full frame movie is automatically split into parts by the Science On a Sphere system and projected onto the entire sphere.

NOAA's official site for downloading this movie for Science On a Sphere is here. The version at the NOAA site is 2000x1000 and is masked along the lower edge so as to display better on the spherical projection system.

This is the Magic Planet version of FROZEN. This version is meant to be projected from the bottom of the sphere onto the sphere's inside surface. The result is a view of the program where the top of the sphere is in the center and the bottom of the sphere is stretched around the outside edge of the circular image.

A Magic Planet-ready version of this movie in divx format is here.

Credits

Official Movie Credits:

Written, Produced and Directed by
Michael Starobin and Horace Mitchell

Based on a presentation by
Dr. Robert Bindschadler/GSFC

Edited by
Victoria Weeks

Narrated by
Craig Sechler

Music by
Andre Gribou

Script Development Team
Michael Starobin
Horace Mitchell
Victoria Weeks
Greg Shirah
Cindy Starr

The Scientific Visualization Studio/NASA GSFC
Director of Data Visualization
Horace Mitchell
Visualization Team
Cindy Starr
Lori Perkins
Tom Bridgman
Greg Shirah
Software Development
Greg Shirah
Eric Sokolowsky

Animation
Ivy Flores
Andrej Bevec
Walt Feimer

Set Construction and Practical Effects
Chris Meaney

Stop Action Photography
Pat Izzo

Infrared Videography
Ed Weibe

Videography
Chris Smith
Victoria Weeks

Studio Crew
Shane Keating
Richard Melnick
Jennifer Lentz
Tatyana Pokrovskaya

Sound Design
Michael Starobin

Audio Engineering and Assistant to the Composer
Eric Arvai

Recording Engineer
Mike Velle

Account Management
Mike Velle

IT Management
Pankaj Jaiswal
Stuart Snodgrass
Jim Williams

Science On a Sphere Project Liaison
Maurice Henderson

Photographic Research
Eric Erbe

Production Photography
Debora McCallum
Pat Izzo

Voice Casting
Sandy Stern Casting, LLC

Cast
Mara Bayewitz
Chris Meaney
Andy Freeberg
Helen-Nicole Kostis

Scientific Consultants
Dr. Bob Bindschadler, GSFC
Dr. Waleed Abdalati, CIRES/CSES
Dr. Thorsten Markus, GSFC
Dr. Richard S. Williams, Jr., USGS

Antarctica Video
PolarPalooza/Passport to Knowledge

Ilulissat Glacier Sequence
Jason Amundson, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Glacier Images provided by
Mike Embree, The National Science Foundation
W. T. Pfeffer, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado
Dr. Roland Warner, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre and Australian Antarctic Division

Permafrost Images provided by
F.T. Eyre, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Marilyn Aber, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Michael J. Coffey, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities

Data Sources
Blue Marble Next Generation Seasonal Landcover Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC)
City lights -- Image and Data processing by NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center from DMSP data collected by the US Air Force Weather Agency.
Circum-Arctic map of permafrost and ground-ice conditions: National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology
Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with funding from The National Science Foundation (NSF)
GLIMS glacier database Armstrong, R., B. Raup, S.J.S. Khalsa, R. Barry, J. Kargel, C. Helm, and H. Kieffer, National Snow and Ice Data Center
World glacier inventory: World Glacier Monitoring Service and National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology
West Greenland Glacier Inventory 1992: Andreas Peter Ahlstrøm, Department of Quaternary Geology, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Copenhagen, Denmark
Groundwater Resources of the World: BGR Hannover / UNESCO Paris
2008 North American Atlas: Government of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Canada Centre for Remote Sensing
The Antarctic Digital Database: copyright © 1993-2006 Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research <br/
Additional Thanks
Anker Weidick, Geological Survey of Denmark
Richard S. Williams, Jr., United States Geological Survey
Charles Swithinbank, British Antarctic Survey
The National Snow and Ice Data Center USGS Washington Water Science Center
Seth White -- www.sethwhite.org
Special thanks to Dr. Ming-Ying Wei, NASA Science Mission Directorate

Executive Producer for Honeywell Technology Solutions
Patrick Kennedy

Executive Producer for NASA Television
GSFC Wade Sisler

Science On a Sphere was Developed by NOAA

FROZEN
Cold matters.
Copyright © 2009 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center All Rights Reserved

This page was originally published on Thursday, June 25, 2015.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:49 PM EDT.

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