Friday, August 4, 2017 - 10:30am
In the northwest corridor at WIPAC, voices are sporadic once again. The open work area next to the help desk team is now mostly dark with empty tables and bare walls. But it has not always been like this. Certainly not during the last few weeks, when this space was one of the most active areas on the floor.
Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - 4:00pm
A fairly laid back week, all things considered. The moon was rising, and IceCube winterover Martin focused his camera outside on some snowed-in heavy machinery. Looks like quite a covering for a place that hardly sees any snowfall.
Friday, July 28, 2017 - 9:00am
Last week at the Pole, life for the IceCube winterovers was bookended by a very busy beginning and a fun and lighthearted ending. For the first few days, they had to contend with some detector issues arising from run transitions and test runs performed, but all went well. By the end of the week, they were celebrating Christmas in July.
Friday, July 21, 2017 - 12:00pm
The sun will rise again … at some point. But in the meanwhile, it’s still winter and the skies remain dark. A bright moon had been lighting things up lately, but last week it was gone, leaving it up to the auroras to provide the overhead entertainment.
Thursday, July 20, 2017 - 4:00pm
Summer is a hot season for science conferences. And in astrophysics, the International Conference on Cosmic Rays (ICRC2017) was a must. This recent event had a strong WIPAC presence, with six talks and and seven posters presented by our researchers, covering new results and future developments for the neutrino observatories ARA and IceCube, the gamma-ray detectors HAWC and the Fermi Large Area Telescope(LAT) , and outreach projects such as DECO and the wide-reaching IceCube education and outreach program. The ten-day conference ended on July 20, in Busan, Korea, with the exciting announcement that UW–Madison will be hosting ICRC2019.
Friday, July 14, 2017 - 10:00am
Although the poker tournament continues, last week’s focus was all about the Games—the South Pole Winter Games, where they had actual medals, a closing ceremony, and even an Olympic flame.
Friday, July 7, 2017 - 10:00am
Let the games begin! The South Pole Winter Games, that is. They feature an eclectic line-up of events, including vertical tower sprint and photography. IceCube winterovers James and Martin signed up for some individual trials but also formed a team to compete in volleyball.
Friday, June 30, 2017 - 9:45am
Last week the IceCube detector had almost perfect uptime. There was also a continuing poker tournament, a birthday celebration, and auroras that seemed to be getting into the spirit of the 4th of July.
Friday, June 23, 2017 - 12:00pm
What a busy week at the Pole. It was Midwinter there, marking the halfway point of the long, dark winter. They held their traditional viewing of “The Shining” and celebratory dinner, including salads, menus, and fancy décor. Also last week was the culmination of a station-wide facial hair contest.
Friday, June 16, 2017 - 12:00pm
The moon was up last week, making it quite bright outside—it almost looks like sunshine. But it’s winter at the Pole, and IceCube’s winterovers have been busy. They had to trek out to the ICL for one thing or another, and they also performed some regular maintenance procedures on DOMs, both in the ice and in IceTop.