Week 34 at the Pole

South Pole station with brightening sky at twilight.
Josh Veitch-Michaelis, IceCube/NSF

Last week was a quiet one for IceCube, and the detector operated with a maximum possible weekly uptime of 99.95%. The brightening sky was beautiful as shown in the above image of the South Pole station. Station life was also reported to be quiet, but “quiet” doesn’t mean without any festivities. First up, they enjoyed a trivia night complete with a burger bar. IceCube winterovers Josh and Martin were on the third-place-winning team. Then, they held a public viewing of the Winter International Film Festival of Antarctica (WIFFA) in the galley. The festival is open to all stations in Antarctica and is for short films produced within 48 hours according to a shared set of guidelines. You can view the South Pole station’s 2021 submission (and previous ones) here.

Two people grilling hamburgers in a kitchen.
Danielle Simmons, NSF
Two people seated in an office space, one filming the other.
Danielle Simmons, NSF