Week 1 at the Pole

Thursday, January 11, 2018 - 2:00pm

Black and white image of group of people handing around the US flag
Raffaela Busse, IceCube/NSF

The IceCube detector started out the year with no major issues.  Yay!  But there was plenty of excitement in other arenas. Everyone gathered at the geographic South Pole for the unveiling of the new pole marker (designed by last year’s IceCube winterover Martin Wolf), moved to its new location for the year.  The winterovers also had their monthly ERT (emergency response team) drill, where they used their skills to save seven people from an “explosion” in the vehicle maintenance facility.  And they were rewarded with some fine weather to enjoy skiing the half marathon (Johannes) and basking in the glow of sun dogs (Raffaela).

New pole marker in front of sign for geographic South Pole
Raffaela Busse, IceCube/NSF

Side view of lone skier
Raffaela Busse, IceCube/NSF

Person standing such that sun dogs halo their head
Joshua Santos/NSF