The cold protection systems are systems on Atlantis designed to reshape the city and protect it and its inhabitants from the dangers of extremely cold environments.
Overview[]
In the event of landing on a planet with a much colder temperature than Lantea, Atlantis has systems to protect itself. Upon the sensors detecting the harsher environment, parts of the city will reshape themselves to offer better protection to its inhabitants. If enough ice is detected in the water, Atlantis will deploy a series of spikes and cables underwater to form a sort of fence protecting the more delicate components on the underside of Atlantis from chunks of ice without the need to deploy the shield. This shows remarkable forward thinking as when Atlantis was in Antarctica it was landed on the continent itself rather than ocean and it seems the city remained on Lantea for the duration of the Ancients stay in Pegasus. However, these underwater defenses will not deploy if the underwater sensors are damaged, preventing Atlantis from detecting the need to deploy them. (SGA: "Legacy: Homecoming", "The Lost")
History[]
These systems were presumably used during Atlantis' time in Antarctica due to its extremely cold environment. (SGA: "The Lost")
In 2009, after landing on the frozen planet, this subroutine automatically activated, and the city made noticeable changes to its walkways and parts of its structure to better shield its inhabitants from the snow and cold of the planet. However, the underwater sensors had been damaged, possibly from when the city had been moved to New Lantea years before, the Battle of the Super-hive or ice after landing and the underwater defenses did not deploy. After this part of the city's defenses were figured out by Doctor Radek Zelenka and Major Evan Lorne, a team led by Lorne replaced the damaged sensors at which point the city automatically deployed its underwater ice defenses. (SGA: "Legacy: Homecoming", "The Lost")