Last week was very busy with computer upgrades, including operating system and firmware updates along with lots of machine rebooting. A challenging task, the “reboot-athon” was split up over several days. IceCube’s winterovers and seasonal crew welcomed additional arrivals last week. They also watched the South Pole Overland Traverse, or SPOT, arrive, laden with cargo […]
Looks like someone doesn’t mind a little frost on the face. And notice their sunglasses, which reflect the cargo brought by the first SPOT of the season. That load included the seven main cables for the Upgrade deployment. One of those cable spools is shown below being lifted off the trailer sled by a large […]
Beneath 1.5 kilometers of ice near the geographic South Pole, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory is on the hunt for ghost particles.
As the world’s first gigaton neutrino detector, IceCube is used by astrophysicists to better understand cosmic objects by observing the neutrinos — abundant, nearly massless, and mysterious elementary particles — that they produce. […]
The South Pole is not immune to trash. Trash accumulates there just as it does anywhere else. At the Pole, however, there are strict policies in place for dealing with and getting rid of waste. With exceptions for sewage and liquid waste, everything else is sorted, packaged, and shipped back off the continent. Last week […]
Despite making up roughly 85% of all matter in the universe, the fundamental nature of dark matter (DM) still eludes scientists. Very little is known about it because it does not interact with light and is observed mainly via gravitational interactions. A possible candidate for dark matter are theoretical particles called weakly interacting massive particles […]
The IceCube Upgrade project’s progress report for last week has earned the name, as “progress” smoothly continues. The drill camp now has two tower operations sites. One will serve as the installation practice site. The image above is a view looking down from one of the towers, with the wrapped-up drill supply hose reel centered […]
IceCube’s new winterovers Alicia and Camille had an active week at the Pole. They wrapped up some computer maintenance and firmware upgrades to servers at the IceCube Lab and at the South Pole station. Snowmobile training was also on the agenda for one of them. Last week’s weather saw not only drastic changes in temperature […]
Last week’s excitement for the IceCube Upgrade project centered around moving the drill tower and operations structures into place. The location is over hole 87, which will be the first Upgrade hole (the IceCube detector has 86 holes). The installation team is also making progress on setting up the area for acceptance testing of the […]
In with the old, out with the new. [Wait a minute, strike that, reverse it.] …It’s in with the new! Yes, it’s that time of year again—the changing of the (IceCube winterover) guard. Newcomers Camille Parisel and Alicia Fattorini stood for a photo with outgoing winterovers Ilya Bodo and Joe Baines-Holmes. They had just finished […]
As the season progresses, the IceCube Upgrade team continues to grow. Eight more arrivals last week brought the South Pole IceCube population up to 29. As newcomers acclimated, the “old-timers” kept up with the snow grooming around drill camp—things are looking good there. They continue to shovel out other structures and have been “harvesting” hoses, […]