Week 10 at the Pole

Monday, March 19, 2018 - 10:45am

View of windswept skiway in the distance.
Johannes Werthebach, IceCube/NSF

It takes a long time for the sun to set at the South Pole.  Maybe just as well for last week.  It allowed IceCube’s winterovers to continue taking outdoor photographs of the landscape, and it gave them some light to see what they were doing while out in the field, driving around and measuring the snow height at all the IceTop stations.  The sunlight didn’t warm things up, though—they were working in –52 °C temperatures.  Yikes.  Indoors they had fun participating in a special webcast that connected five middle schools in Texas on a virtual 24-hour field trip that covered the seven continents.

View of Dark Sector buildings in the distance.
Johannes Werthebach, IceCube/NSF

Shadowed figures in foreground, sun low on horizon
Johannes Werthebach, IceCube/NSF

Drumlike contraption on scaffolding
Johannes Werthebach, IceCube/NSF