There was plenty of detector maintenance and troubleshooting last week to keep IceCube’s winterovers busy. The detector doesn’t know about all the Nobel hoopla, so…it just keeps doing its thing. There was a hard drive that needed to be replaced, and a few software updates to do. On the Upgrade side of things, calibration operations […]
Last week, there were cakes here, there, and everywhere, including at the South Pole. Upon learning that IceCube PI Francis Halzen had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, the entire station gathered at the IceCube Lab for a celebratory group photo. Later, the kitchen staff presented a special cake decorated for the occasion (even […]
Depending on which way you face, it can still seem a little dark at the Pole. In the image above, the sun is bright but it leaves the foreground dark and shadowy. Below, we still see surface shadows that show off all the intricate designs left in the snow from the winds, but the entire […]
There it is! The sun, that is—a thin sliver on the horizon, but orange and bright and lighting up the sky above it. It’s of course a welcome sight after a long polar night. (Ok, there won’t be auroras for a while, but we can handle that.) Last week kept IceCube’s winterovers busy with one […]
Images from last week at the Pole don’t quite show the sun as up and visible, but it’s very close. And there’s plenty of light to show off an expanse of sastrugi, above, with a flag line fading into the distance. Last week was busy with detector activities as well as seasonal station activities. At […]
Enjoy it while it lasts! Although sunrise at the South Pole stretches out over weeks, providing plenty of time to appreciate it, the weather isn’t necessarily cooperative each day. So when you get a clear sky that allows an unbroken band of striking color along the horizon, you take time to pause. And then, hopefully, […]
Last week at the Pole, the outdoor color theme continued with the previous week’s blue, creating a very peaceful landscape. The increasing light in the sky confirms the approaching sunrise, with just a couple of weeks to go for the real deal. The outside light makes it easier to discern the frostiness on the exterior […]
The South Pole sky is starting to show a little color. The sun hasn’t risen yet, but that’s a slow process at the Pole. The three periods of twilight linger for weeks there, with light creeping up over the horizon gradually. Speaking of color, the photo below trumps the horizon photo by a long shot. […]
All was well at the Pole last week. The moon was shining brightly in its final cycle before the sun rises. IceCube winterovers were busy with their usual work. And the galley staff got a break from their normal workload on community cook day, in which the science group was in charge of preparing lunch […]
A spectacular display of auroras graced the sky above the Pole last week, and IceCube winterover Camille was poised to capture a nice shot. It can be a little challenging to remain still for outdoor photos—for humans, but apparently for the South Pole Telescope, as well, as evidenced below. The week ended on a more […]