Week 36 at the Pole

The IceCube Lab at dawn with yellow sky along horizon.
Martin Wolf, IceCube/NSF

It was a relatively quiet one last week at the Pole. IceCube’s winterovers performed a monthly calibration of IceTop DOMS and visited the IceCube Lab (ICL) to restart a crashed computer hub. While there, they also covered up the IceAct telescope situated on the ICL’s roof, pictured below in its frosty, post-winter state. IceAct operates only in the winter, so its lens must be covered up before sunrise (it was uncovered back in May). With increasing daylight, the large pile of snow that has accumulated over the winter in front of the ICL (known to some as “Mt. ICL”) is all the more apparent, as seen above.

Close-up of the IceAct telescope installed on the roof of the ICL.
Martin Wolf, IceCube/NSF