The skies might be getting a bit brighter as sunrise approaches, but last week at the Pole saw some rapidly dropping temperatures, reaching -100 F over the weekend. That’s not record-breaking, but it is extremely cold nonetheless. Severe cold doesn’t stop winterovers from doing their planned outdoor activities, however. Above, we see them all gathered […]
IceCube winterover Marc recently captured a nice swath of green auroras swirling above a bright low moon. It’s likely one of the last aurora photos of the season—as daylight begins to infiltrate the South Pole skies, auroras must be really bright in order to be seen. The images below of the telescopes in the Dark […]
The end of winter may be in sight at the South Pole, but the photo above of the IceCube Lab still presents a very wintry scene, all frosted over under a starry sky. The IceCube detector was rather quiet last week, but there was plenty going on at the station. Last week’s firefighting training involved […]
Time flies—they’re starting to talk about the Sun’s reappearance at the Pole. Below is a photo from last week that serves as a preview of what’s to come—but it was a long exposure photo so it appears much brighter in the image than it actually was. They were still enjoying auroras last week though, as […]
The moon was bright at the Pole last week. And it sufficiently illuminated IceCube’s winterovers Marc and Hrvoje as they “relaxed” on a snowdrift in front of the IceCube Lab (ICL). They were paged for a power issue but were also busy in general last week with routine maintenance. Below is an inside view of […]
The theme for last week at the Pole was “tall.” IceCube winterover Marc captured a nice photograph of the moon shining brightly through some striated clouds, with the ARO tower shown front and center. ARO stands for Atmospheric Research Observatory, which is located in the Clean Air Sector at the South Pole. In the summer […]
For such a remote, isolated location, the South Pole tends to have a lot of activity most weeks. Last week, IceCube’s winterovers were treated to a middle-of-the-night (!) page for issues on a couple of DOMs, but power cycling resolved things so at least they were able to get back to sleep pretty quickly. The […]
Christmas in July continued last week with all sorts of activities, ranging from a pool tournament to a pie-eating contest. And for those who enjoy competitive eating, they weren’t limited to just pies—a “donuts on a string” eating contest was also part of the festivities. In addition, the station held a Christmas trivia night and […]
A barren landscape, the South Pole is actually a desert. It’s not the kind of desert most people imagine, with lots of sand and heat and maybe a camel ambling by. Instead of sand, there’s snow. But almost all of that snow has blown in from more coastal regions of the continent, ushered in from […]
Not everyone celebrates Christmas in July, but they do at the South Pole station, where traditions prevail. Last week started off the festivities with the appearance of a tree and presents in the galley. More activities and decorations are planned for upcoming weeks. The weather was nice and cold as a fitting complement to the […]