Wednesday, April 6, 2016 - 9:45am
A mushroom cloud … at the South Pole? What’s going on down there? What’s going on is actually a rising full moon getting distorted by the atmosphere. Pretty cool image.
Friday, April 1, 2016 - 9:30am
With so little time left above the horizon, the sun is making a nice spectacle of itself at the South Pole. Here we see it bright and orange and surrounded by a clear halo as it hovers above the satellite stations.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016 - 8:00am
The National Science Foundation today, March 30, announced that it has renewed a cooperative agreement with the University of Wisconsin–Madison to operate IceCube, a massive neutrino telescope buried deep in the ice beneath the South Pole. The five-year, $35 million cooperative agreement calls for the continued operation and management of the observatory located at NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - 9:00am
Last week there were a few alarm calls in the cryo building. The first one interrupted an outreach webcast, and then there was another one later the same day. The photo shows the emergency response team on their return from one of those calls. You can see that the sun is still out, just a few degrees above the horizon.
Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - 9:30am
On a clear sunny day, it’s easy to make out the buildings at the end of the road to the Dark Sector, but the flag line is set up for the winter months, when darkness and extreme temperatures reign and you really can’t afford to get lost out there.
Monday, March 14, 2016 - 1:00am
The third edition of the IceCube Masterclass hosted over 200 students at 10 institutions in Belgium, Germany, and the US. Madison (WI) hosted the first edition in Spanish, attended by 28 Hispanic high school students. Masterclasses were held on March 2 and March 9.
Thursday, March 10, 2016 - 9:45am
There’s a beautiful half moon in this image, can you spot it? Well, it is a little small in the photo—but sometimes we don’t notice the moon out during the day because we’re not expecting it. However, we shouldn’t be surprised see it then, since it’s often visible.
Thursday, March 3, 2016 - 9:30am
Chairs and sofas (and mattresses!) have been set up in the gym, all for the sake of movie-watching comfort. It’s unclear how they vied for best seats. But some padding or support is imperative when you’re going to hunker down for three movies in a row—or rather, three versions of the same movie. Yes, we’re talking about The Thing, the traditional entertainment springboard to ring in the beginning of the winter season at the South Pole.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016 - 3:15pm
A cloud of snow dust appears in the wake of the last flight out of the South Pole for the season. Well…almost. It was supposed to be the last flight, but unforeseen circumstances (they do crop up every so often) caused a few summer personnel to delay their departure a few more days. Delays can be a nuisance, but so close to the end of the summer season, they’re even more likely to produce anxiety since in winter there’s no leaving the Pole once the last flight has gone.
Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - 5:15pm
Maybe we should all do this with our packages from now on. Mail and cargo arrived last week, and someone set out the contents of one of the boxes quite decoratively for the photo. To efficiently unload the goods when they arrived, they formed an assembly line going up the stairs to the station.