Bad weather last week at the Pole meant more indoor photos than outdoor photos. But starting with the out-of-doors, the image above shows the front of the station entrance with a snowdrift that had built up after only a few days of heavy winds. They had to carve a passage through the drift for people […]
The main activity occupying IceCube’s winterovers last week was running DOM calibration on all of IceCube’s in-ice modules, a big effort compared to their usual task of calibrating just the IceTop DOMs. Besides other work on the detector, they also had emergency response training and put in some time helping deep clean the galley chairs […]
IceCube winterover Hrvoje, who took the photo above, was excited to see the sun coming up again at the South Pole, except…that’s the moon and not the sun! (Of course, he knew that all along.) But what an illusion, this image of the moon—it could fool anyone. And the moon has played such games before. […]
First up—last week featured a weather balloon launch. That’s IceCube winterover Marc lending his assistance. He also spent some time helping out with preparations for a repair to one of the power generators. A trip to the South Pole power plant is always an interesting visit. Last week’s activities also included some detector troubleshooting, a […]
Ahh, auroras! We knew they’d come…and now the first of the season have been captured by IceCube’s winterovers. It’s still not completely dark outside, but the skies are still impressive. Above are the first faint auroras seen over the South Pole station, and below seen over the Dark Sector, with the IceCube Lab (ICL) visible […]
Last week at the Pole, they had their Easter dinner—since the kitchen staff doesn’t normally work on Sundays, it was delayed, but only by a day. There was an assortment of colored and decorated eggs as part of the festivities, too (maybe next week they’ll have egg salad?). IceCube’s winterovers were busy with quite an […]
It was a quiet week at the Pole, at least for IceCube’s winterovers, with smooth detector operations—no problems or urgent troubleshooting. But there were still the typical activities, like maintenance work, emergency response training, and a cause for celebration (last week it was Easter). It was also quiet outside, with clear skies to enjoy the […]
The sun may be gone, but its light still lingers. At the Pole, sunset doesn’t just “happen”—it takes place slowly through prolonged stages of twilight, after the sun dips below the horizon, in which the light gradually diminishes until darkness reigns. That’s IceCube winterover Marc, above, outside the IceCube Lab as he gets ready to […]
The sun has finally gone below the horizon at the Pole, not to peek back up again for another six months or so. IceCube’s winterovers spent some time early in the week finishing up outdoor work in the fading light. Although the weather was rather bad last week, there were a few nice hours of […]
Where is the horizon? Well, it must be there somewhere, hidden between the white of the snow on the ground and the white of the cloudy sky above. These winterovers were posing at the ceremonial Pole during a recent “sunset stroll,” which was technically a 3K race but one that could be done in a […]