Last week was one of those relatively quiet weeks at the South Pole. IceCube’s winterovers gave a webcast presentation for a group of high school students in Australia. The whole station came together in celebration of Christmas in July, observed in many parts of the world, including the South Pole. But the quiet indoors was […]
What’s black and white and red all over? All the images from last week at the Pole. First of all, it’s winter, it’s dark, and the ground is covered in snow—there’s your black and white. The red? Well, the Dark Sector at the South Pole is home to many light-sensitive experiments, so in the dark […]
Last week was mostly quiet again at the South Pole. The snow drifts continue to grow, as clearly seen in front of the IceCube Lab, above. From farther away, we see the snowed-in IceCube Upgrade hose reel and storage containers, under a bright moon (not sun!) through overcast skies. The activity for last week came […]
There’s a lot of snow around at the South Pole for a place that’s classified as a desert. That’s because it is carried in from strong winds that blow across the continent. And the blowing snow accumulates around the station and all the structures located at the Pole, including the IceCube Upgrade storage containers as […]
Last week, things were quiet for IceCube’s winteovers as well as for the South Pole station in general, in recovery mode after the midwinter celebrations. But the skies weren’t quiet—the stars were out and auroras danced overhead. On one occasion, a large green auroa almost filled the entire sky, enough to fill one’s head with […]
Wash, rinse, and repeat. You have two seasons at the Pole, summer and winter. Summer is long gone and now it’s not only winter but midwinter, which means the station has been closed for a while now and they’ve reached their halfway mark. But as the second half of winter unfolds, there will still be […]
Last week’s outdoor photographs from the Pole have gone from colorful to more black and white (with some red accents) thanks to a bright moon and no auroras in sight. It was a relatively quiet week. IceCube’s winterovers were busy doing test runs in preparation for the start of the next physics run season. The […]
To really enjoy auroras, you want a nice dark sky. And in winter, the South Pole enjoys very dark skies (also great for stargazing). Last week, aurora-viewing conditions were favorable, and the Pole was treated to a variety of displays, including some with a mix of colors and others where big green auroras dominated. But […]
It was a rather quiet week at the Pole. Not in the skies, though, where auroras continued to dance and the multitude of stars competed for attention. The bottom photo gives the stars a little bit more of the glory. Though many of us may have never witnessed a display of auroras, we’ve undoubtedly looked […]
Sometimes it feels almost as if the auroras are trying to say something, scrawling an unintelligible script across the sky. Last week at the Pole, IceCube’s winterovers were out at the IceCube Lab, checking on the IceACT unit up on the roof and capturing some nice images of the auroras and stars. They have been […]