Week 15 at the Pole
Last week’s photos from the Pole were full of blue and green. The first visible auroras were out, and they appeared as bright green swaths and swirls against a blue sky. Also, IceCube’s winterovers James and Martin took a photo of themselves in the ICL, and their white lab coats reflected the lights from the computers, giving one a blue and the other a green hue, coordinating with the auroras outside. The curvy-shaped aurora below looks a bit like an “S” and the beginning of some sky writing. Auroras often display shapes that conjure up other images—it’s part of their charm. The moon was out in full force last week, too. Ice crystals in the atmosphere produced a pronounced moon pillar, shown in the eerie, not-so-blue-or-green image below. Jupiter is visible as a tiny white speck at the top of that photo. Martin also captured a nice self-portrait on the observation deck, with the bright moon and a long green aurora band behind him.
