Week 17 at the Pole

aurorafromstation
Raffaela Busse, IceCube/NSF

Last week was fairly relaxed at the Pole. Some testing and troubleshooting with the detector, but all went rather smoothly. Lately, IceCube’s winterovers have fallen into opposite sleep schedules, which means that one of them is always awake when pages come in about detector matters requiring immediate attention, a welcome situation for the one who is sleeping. As for the skies last week? They were glowing. And swirling, and shimmering. The auroras sometimes swirl into shapes suggesting all kinds of things. The image below has many possibilities (think animals). The bottom image has it all—lingering sunset, full band of bright auroras, and starry sky above.

shapesinauroras
Raffaela Busse, IceCube/NSF
brightlowauroras
Raffaela Busse, IceCube/NSF