NSF PA/M 99-31 - December 2, 1999
NSF Invites Media to Visit Antarctica
To Report on U.S.-Sponsored Research (2000-2001 Season)
Deadline: May 1, 2000
The National Science Foundation (NSF), which runs the U.S. Antarctic
Program (USAP), is accepting written requests from professional journalists
to visit Antarctica during the 2000-2001 research season.
NSF wishes to convey the scope and significance of the science conducted
in Antarctica to the widest possible cross-section of the public. Accordingly,
NSF annually selects a very small group of journalists, representing diverse
audiences, to make individual visits to the United States' three Antarctic
research stations -- McMurdo, Amundsen-Scott South Pole, and Palmer --
to report on NSF-sponsored scientific projects or research themes. Previously,
journalists have accompanied field science parties, sailed on research
cruises or focused on studies at a particular site. Visits usually last
one or two weeks, but may last longer depending on intended results. A
reporting plan that details those expectations must be submitted as part
of the application. Competition is intense for a very limited number of
slots.
A selection committee comprising USAP science and logistics personnel
and media officers from NSF's Office of Legislative and Public Affairs
(OLPA) reviews all proposals and selects finalists. The committee, in
general, looks for proposals that indicate an understanding of the nature
and challenges of the scientific enterprise NSF supports in Antarctica
and the desire to communicate that understanding to the public. Another
consideration that affects selection is USAP's ability to provide the
logistical support needed to carry out a specific reporting plan. Print,
television, and radio journalists are welcome to apply. NSF also welcomes
proposals from the fields of online news and high definition television.
NSF's Office of Polar Programs has a separate program to support
artists and writers in Antarctica whose primary form of expression is
not journalistic. For information see: http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/aawr.htm,
or contact: Guy Guthridge,
(703) 306-1033/gguthrid@nsf.gov
Application: Focused applications with thorough reporting plans
that indicate solid working knowledge of the U.S. Antarctic Program and
the science it supports stand the best chance of selection. Feature film
proposals and general reporting about the Antarctic, travel, or logistics
are not given priority. U.S. media receive preference.
Reporting Plans: Reporters must develop their own reporting plans,
with assistance from NSF scientists and public affairs officers. Reporters
who are selected must visit NSF headquarters in Arlington, Va. for a day
or two of background briefings.
Expenses: Reporters or their employers pay for round-trip transportation
to -- and accommodation in -- Christchurch, New Zealand (if travelling
to McMurdo or South Pole Stations) or Punta Arenas, Chile (if travelling
to Palmer Station). Reporters make their own travel arrangements and hotel
reservations in New Zealand and Chile. Reporters must visit NSF headquarters
in Arlington, Va., at their own expense, for pre-trip planning. NSF furnishes
coldweather clothing solely for use in the field as well as housing, transportation
and food in Antarctica, at no cost to reporters.
Medical: Finalists must pass a comprehensive physical exam conducted
at their own expense by their personal physicians and subject to screening
by the U.S. Antarctic Program. Certain medical conditions may preclude
a candidate from visiting Antarctica, even if selected as a media visitor. Every
USAP participant, including scientists, must pass the physical.
How To Apply: Contact NSF (by phone or by e-mail) as soon as
possible to express interest and to obtain background materials. Plans
for reporting from Antarctica should be submitted in a short letter --
preferably no longer than two pages. Freelancers must supply evidence
of a firm commitment to publish or air their work on their prospective
employer's letterhead.
Send the letter and any supporting materials (such as a limited number
of clips or videotaped segments) to:
National Science Foundation, Office of Legislative and Public Affairs
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1245
Arlington, VA 22230
Attn: Peter West or Amber Jones, (703) 292-8070/pwest@nsf.gov or aljones@nsf.gov
Deadline: Written requests must be received no later than May
1, 2000. NSF will make final selections in mid-summer, and will notify
those who are selected -- and those who are not -- as soon as possible.
Attachment: Highlights Of NSF's 1999-2000
Antarctic Research Season
Highlights Of NSF's 1999-2000 Antarctic Research Season
This list suggests some story ideas. Not all projects listed will
continue next season.
INTERNATIONAL TRANS-ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION (ITASE): ITASE is a multidisciplinary
approach to global-change research that integrates meteorology, remote
sensing, ice coring, surface glaciology, and geophysics and is part of
the overall West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Program. The U.S. ITASE general
objectives are to determine the variability of West Antarctic climate
and the environmental variability in West Antarctica over the last 200
plus years. U.S. ITASE is coordinated through the science management office
located at the University of New Hampshire. The university coordinates
the eight funded U.S. science projects that comprise the U.S. ITASE. Researchers
from Arizona, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Ohio will be participating
in U.S. ITASE activities this year. Experiments will include radar studies
of bedrock underlying the West Antarctic Ice Sheet; high-resolution radar
profiling of snow and ice stratigraphy; and glaciochemistry.
ANTARCTIC PACK ICE SEALS: The pack ice that surrounds Antarctica contains
at least 50 percent of the world's seal population. As a group, these
seals are the dominant predators in Southern Ocean ecosystems. Fluctuations
in their abundance, growth patterns, life histories, and behavior provide
a potential source of information about environmental variability in and
around Antarctica. As part of an international project, in which USAP
is participating, researchers will count seals from the air and determine
species distribution, attach radio and satellite transmitters to the animals
to monitor their behavior, and attempt to determine the animals' prey
preferences. This will require for the first time that the research vessel
Nathaniel B. Palmer carry helicopters to assist in the research.
CAPE ROBERTS PROJECT: Evidence that cataclysmic volcanism rocked Antarctica
some 21 million years ago was produced last field season by the Cape Roberts
project, an international effort involving scientists from the United
States, New Zealand, Italy, the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany.
Cape Roberts drilling will continue for the third season this year. The
team will attempt to collect cores from the Ross Sea floor by drilling
through sea ice into the underlying sea floor. Ice at least 1.5 meters
thick is needed to serve as a drilling platform. Sediments and fossils
in the drill core should help provide information about conditions 2570
million years ago, and fill in gaps missing from knowledge of the Earth's
climate. During this interval of time, the first ice sheets in Antarctica
began to form. This period is particularly important scientifically as
it covers a period in the planet's history when Earth last experienced
temperatures as warm as those that are expected to occur over the next
few centuries as a result of greenhouse warming. Work also will begin
this season on analysis of materials drilled in previous years of the
project.
MICROBES AT THE SOUTH POLE: Although associated in the public mind with
images of vast penguin colonies - which exist only on the continent's
temperate coast - most of Antarctica is a frozen desert, devoid of life
except at the microscopic level. Researchers this year will attempt to
determine the species and abundance of microscopic algae in permanent
ice and snow and will study the microbes' metabolic activity and molecular
biology to try to understand how they live and how they got there. How
life can exist in such incredibly harsh conditions: the Pole is in total
darkness most of the year and average low temperatures in winter routinely
drop as low as minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Their findings may have implications
for studies of how life may survive in extreme environments elsewhere
in the solar system.
ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS AT THE SOUTH POLE: The atmospheric conditions
at the South Pole make it a world-class astronomical observatory. Several
projects will be conducted this year. They include:
Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA): Buried under the
clear, deep ice at the South Pole and using the ice as medium for detecting
subatomic particles, AMANDA represents the first steps toward creating
a neutrino telescope that is a square kilometer-sized. By making images
of high-energy neutrinos, AMANDA has the potential to discover discrete
sources of neutrinos, and shed light on the "dark-matter" particles that
astronomers believe make up most of the matter in the universe. AMANDA
also can search continuously for supernova explosions in the Milky Way
galaxy and perhaps even search for the birth of the super-massive black
holes that power quasars.
Degree Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI): An array of 13 telescopes,
DASI will be assembled at the Pole this year after being shipped from
Illinois. The device will assist scientists to study the Cosmic Microwave
Background Radiation, the afterglow of the Big Bang that brought the universe
into being and from which galaxies formed.
CONSTRUCTION AT AMUNDSEN-SCOTT SOUTH POLE STATION: Modernization and
upgrading of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station continues this season.
The existing station is 20 years old and has exceeded its design life.
The South Pole Modernization Project (SPMP), a $128-million initiative,
will replace the existing station by 2005. Construction crews worked over
the austral winter to complete the interior construction of a new garage
and machine shop at the station. Work will begin this summer to prepare
the foundations for a replacement laboratory - which will be built on
supports above the ice cap - in the station's "dark sector," an area that
is shielded from visible light and electromagnetic radiation which would
interfere with astronomical research conducted at the Pole. Construction
also will begin on the exterior of a new power plant. The power plant's
interior will be completed during the upcoming austral winter. The reconstruction
project is on schedule and within budget.
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