Week 33 at the Pole

By Jean DeMerit — Friday, August 23, 2013 - 9:45am
Friday, August 23, 2013 - 9:45am

An illusion of a moon setting on the sandy shores of a beach, but it is still the South Pole.
B. Kuo Tiong, Icecube/NSF

The yellow light cast on the ground makes the scene look almost like a sandy beach, with a shorefront edging into dark waters. But it’s just an illusion, we’re still at the Pole. That’s SPTR-2 above, one of the South Pole satellite domes; another satellite dome, GOES, is shown below. The South Pole presents special challenges for scientific data transmission, making these communications structures particularly important. It was a great week for other photos, too—with a bright moon, swirling auroras, flapping flags, and … vanishing winterovers.

Satiate dome, GOES.
B. Kuo Tiong, Icecube/NSF

Moon lighting up the sky with swirling auroras.
B. Kuo Tiong, Icecube/NSF

Flags, as a guide between stations, blowing in the wind
F. Pedreros, Icecube/NSF

Winterover standing next to a red flag, going to a station.
B. Kuo Tiong, Icecube/NSF

Experimenting with the camera and making a winterover look ghostly in front of a station.
B. Kuo Tiong, Icecube/NSF

 

winterovers ,
South Pole ,
Week at the Pole