The ultimate portrait of the earth’s Polar Regions.

In 2012 the Discovery Channel will broadcast Frozen Planet, the long-awaited third installment in the BBC Earth series of which Blue Planet: Seas of Life and Planet Earth: As You’ve Never Seen It Before won multiple Emmy awards.

Frozen Planet is the companion book to the TV series. It follows the world’s best wildlife photographers as they capture animal behavior and landscapes never seen before, including Antarctica’s active volcanoes and the previously restricted Russian Arctic. Custom-designed HD cameras allowed undisturbed observation. Traveling by nuclear submarine, military helicopter, icebreaker and snowmobile, the filmmakers endured piercing polar winters and the dangerous summer melt to record what may be the dying days of Earth’s frozen regions.

Frozen Planet has seven sections:

Pole to Pole Spring: Life Wakes Up Summer: Life Multiplies Autumn: Life Retreats Winter: Life Closes Down On Thin Ice Tales from the Poles

It follows four polar residents that reveal the health of the planet and what the future may hold: the polar bear and arctic fox in the north; the Adelie penguin and wandering albatross in the south. Behind the scenes segments describe the making of the TV series.

Some of the fascinating stories are:

Icebergs the size of New York skyscrapers The first record of killer whales hunting in packs 80,000 smelly macaroni penguins on Bird Island A very rare blond fur seal pup Satellite tagged wandering albatrosses raising their chicks King penguins catching a wave A lone white wolf eyeing a photographer Grass-eating polar bears The creeping glaciers of Svalbard Adelie penguin chicks learning to swim Killer whales using their tails to wash seals off ice flows Canada’s Barrenlands coming to life in the spring A polar bear stalking a film crew Scuba diving with beluga whales in the Russian Arctic The elusive Greenland shark

Sales of the companion book to the Blue Planet television series topped 6 million dollars. Frozen Planet promises to be an equal or greater success. The important topic, the expected demand from Discovery Channel viewers and an excellent price make it an essential purchase.