Well, now it’s official—the South Pole station has closed for the winter. Above is a great shot that IceCube winterover Martin captured of the last passenger-carrying plane to depart. Below, the plane is shown being refueled, followed by a view of its take-off as it heads for McMurdo captured from the station’s observation deck. The […]
It’s still light outside, but winter at the South Pole is fast approaching. There were both arrivals and departures last week, and we can see that the departures (above) well outnumbered the arrivals (below). At this point, all the winterovers who will remain on station for this winter have arrived, and team building activities are […]
![Large fuel bladders parked on the ice at the South Pole.]](https://res.cloudinary.com/icecube/images/w_150,h_113,c_scale/q_auto/v1613409623/2021week05_spot_fuel_jveitchmichaelis/2021week05_spot_fuel_jveitchmichaelis.jpg?_i=AA)
Last week at the Pole, the fuel arrived. A lot of it! It takes a lot of fuel to keep things operating all year long in this extreme environment, and like any other cargo, all that fuel must be transported in some way to this remote locale. That’s where SPOT—the South Pole Overland Traverse—comes in. […]
If you want to take inventory of a shipping container’s contents, you have to get inside first. And if your container is at the South Pole, that can mean moving a whole lot of snow. As we’ve said before, for a place that’s essentially a winter desert, there’s a lot of snow accumulation at the […]
![Two people in fire gear playing dodgeball in gym.]](https://res.cloudinary.com/icecube/images/w_150,h_113,c_scale/q_auto/v1611948456/2021week03_ert_dodgeball_jveitchmichaelis/2021week03_ert_dodgeball_jveitchmichaelis.jpg?_i=AA)
So much activity at the Pole last week. A game of dodgeball is just the thing to provide practice for the emergency response team. First, they have to don their full gear in under two minutes before they can pick up a ball for their team. Then, they have to play dodgeball. It’s a workout. […]
It doesn’t snow much at the South Pole but there is lots of snow that accumulates there, and sometimes it needs to be moved. Such was the case last week, when a digging crew was put to the task of removing old field equipment from another South Pole experiment, ARIANNA, a proof of concept for […]
The first full week of the year was a busy one! So much going on… The IceCube detector was well behaved, but there were still several maintenance items to take care of. One of the maintenance tasks involved the IceACT camera on the roof of the ICL, and while they were working, they discovered one […]
Like other places around the world, the South Pole has its traditions for ringing in the new year, but some of them are unique to this locale. For example, each year they hold a ceremony at the geographic pole to set a new pole marker into place. The exact location of the geographic pole shifts […]
There are many well-established traditions at the South Pole, and the “Race Around the World” (above) is one of them—a fun run that covers about a two-mile circumference around the South Pole, crossing through all the world’s time zones. Costumes optional, but part of the fun. Last week at the Pole they celebrated Christmas, with […]
The holiday season is often a busy time of year for many people, and things are no different at the South Pole. Last week, the IceCube winterovers had their hands full with some detector troubleshooting and maintenance—below they are seen testing batteries and swapping them out at the IceCube lab—as well as clearing snow from […]