This aerial view of the IceCube Lab (ICL) suggests that last week’s kite-camera tests proved fruitful. The low sun and the long shadows indicate that summer is on its way out, although that’s a long, slow process at the South Pole. Meanwhile, IceCube’s winterovers have been keeping busy. Last week, they gave a few tours […]
Summer is indeed winding down at the Pole. Last week saw the departure of the two remaining IceCube summer personnel, leaving IceCube’s two intrepid winterovers on their own until next November. The week was full of activity, though, mostly focused on tasks related to the ARA project, like troubleshooting communications (which required digging out and […]
As far as sun dogs go, these are hard to beat. Maybe IceCube winterover Hrvoje has a way of attracting sundogs? He took the photo above, and last month, he posed in front of sun dogs for winterover Marc to capture the shot. Since it’s summer at the Pole, people were still coming and going […]
Last week’s main activity at the Pole involved digging, lots of digging (see below). Two ARA stations needed to be dug out for maintenance and repair tasks. One of the stations had over two meters of snow to remove from it, so it was a bit challenging—but many hands make light (or lighter) work. The […]
At the South Pole, they have their traditions…and their training. Last week, training included station-wide emergency response drills. And training can involve some fun. Lobbing balls around in the gym (or doing anything), though, in full firefighting gear is strenuous and thus good practice. PolarTREC educator Elaine Krebs arrived at the Pole as part of […]
Week 52—the last of 2022—was a busy week at the South Pole. Some of IceCube’s summer staff were leaving by the end of the week, so there were some minor items to finish up before then. Also, the second South Pole overland traverse (SPOT2) arrived, with more fuel for the station and some IceCube Upgrade […]
There was lots of activity at the Pole last week. Some IceCube summer crew members are now there working alongside the winterovers. The early part of the week was dedicated to hardware repairs and upgrades at the IceCube Lab. They also packed up cargo, including hard drives destined for long-term storage in Madison, which they […]
Ahh, summer! Sunshine and warm lazy days. At the South Pole, though, you only get the sunshine (unless it’s cloudy), but not the warmth. Summer at the Pole also means more people coming to the station. Among the group arriving in the photo above are three members of the IceCube team. They received a special […]
It was a busy week at the Pole. Cargo destined for the IceCube Lab arrived, shown above while it was being unloaded. Below, a smaller load of cargo is packed on a sled to get it back to the station by snowmobile. Besides dealing with heavy boxes, IceCube’s winterovers were busy with computer upgrades and […]
Bad weather and low visibility gave a misty, floating appearance to the IceCube Lab (ICL) last week—view of its staircase above and the whole lab below. IceCube’s new winterovers spent some time at the ICL upgrading servers as well as offering tours to South Pole station personnel. A flight brought some new people to the […]