Sometimes it’s just plain quiet at the Pole. It’s summer, the sun’s out, and the temperatures are…well, let’s just say it’s cold. Above is a nice view of the South Pole station on a sunny day. And below is IceCube winterover Celas, whose remaining days at the Pole are numbered, taking advantage of the sun […]
So, you’ve arrived at the Geographic South Pole—or have you? The sign might not help much on its own, but now that the sun is out we can see where we are from the surroundings (yes, it’s the geographic South Pole). Below is a close-up view of the current 2022 South Pole marker, which was […]
Now there’s a bright sun! And it looks like it’s shining over a body of water with choppy waves. But that’s just an illusion, stemming from the shadows cast by a low sun over the rough icy surface at the South Pole. There’s another apparition above, where something appears to be stretching across the entire […]
Last week was another quiet week at the Pole. And it was cloudy and windy again, with the slowly rising sun mostly obscured in the sky. IceCube’s winterovers were paged a few times to go out to the IceCube Lab, so they were out and about in the cloudy, windy landscape. Above we see the […]
There’s nothing wrong with “quiet,” especially where detector operations are concerned. That’s a good thing. And last week was relatively quiet at the Pole. IceCube’s winterovers did have to trek out to the IceCube Lab anyway, though, for some hands-on work for a routine operation. On their walk, Moreno captured some nice photos of the […]
The early part of last week at the Pole was a little quiet, with just some troubleshooting stemming from a software crash. But then things picked up. It was the time of year when the flags around the ceremonial Pole are swapped out for fresh ones. These flags take quite a beating from the elements […]
IceCube’s winterovers spent some time last week on troubleshooting activities at the IceCube Lab, but they didn’t get there in the vehicle above. No one is going anywhere quickly in that truck—a “little bit” of digging out might be required first. Winterover Celas snapped that photo along with the other images below while hiking out […]
It was a fairly calm week at the Pole. The winterovers were again sent to the ICL to cover both IceAct telescopes. These telescopes are designed to detect Cherenkov light from cosmic rays in the atmosphere but had to be covered before a whiteout at the South Pole. The South Pole Art Gallery was graced […]
Yes, you read that right. Back in 2019, Elaine Krebs was selected as the next PolarTREC educator to work with IceCube’s South Pole crew, with deployment set for 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, deployment was delayed to 2022. Now, Elaine will finally embark on her journey to the South Pole, where she will […]
As the Antarctic winter draws to a close, our winterovers picked up some extra responsibility. Last week opened with a Zoom meeting between the current winterovers and the recruits for next year, during which Moreno and Celas shared their experiences, words of advice, and warnings about the South Pole delicacies. Later in the week, they […]