Week 43 at the Pole

Friday, November 2, 2018 - 11:45am

Front view on ground of arriving aircraft at the South Pole
Ta-Lee Shue, NSF

IceCube was quiet and well behaved last week, but the week was full of all sorts of other activity now that the summer season is officially underway.  Above we see IceCube winterover Raffaela getting ready to help park the first passenger aircraft of the season.  As passengers begin to arrive, so do winterovers begin to leave, carried off on the planes that brought summer visitors or the next round of winterovers. Raffela and Johannes are still there, though, waiting for their replacements…and facing the daunting task of clearing away all the snow that has accumulated at the ICL (bottom) over the winter.

Huge snow drift between two wings of the South Pole station building
Raffaela Busse, IceCube/NSF

Accumulated snow on porch of ICL
Raffaela Busse, IceCube/NSF