Week 3 at the Pole

Friday, February 1, 2019 - 10:45am

View from plane over Antarctica
Lu Lu, IceCube/NSF

Flight delays are not uncommon at the South Pole, which can be frustrating.  But sometimes there’s an upside, as there was for a recent cohort of IceCube personnel waiting to leave the Pole.  They were rewarded for their delay with a flight out on a Basler aircraft (much smaller than the Herc they were waiting on), which gave them fantastic views on the way to McMurdo Station.  It was a standard-issue busy week at the Pole—fixing, testing, measuring, and so on.  But there were some great photos taken outside, capturing a sun dog and some mystery guests at the geographic pole marker.

Person standing with their head almost centered on the sun, with halo and sun dogs surrounding
Lu Lu, IceCube/NSF

Stuffed animal penguin atop the geographic South Pole marker
Lu Lu, IceCube/NSF

Two costumed people standing in front of geographic South Pole sign, with miscellaneous decorations scattered about
Benjamin Eberhardt, IceCube/NSF