The launch of the so-called IceCube Upgrade—which will deploy seven new strings at the bottom of the detector array—sets a milestone in what IceCubers have designed as an incremental extension of the Antarctic detector.
The equinox occurred last week, and the sun has finally risen above the horizon. The sky in turn is showing off an array of beautiful colors, providing a nice backdrop for outdoor photos.
Just because the sun’s coming up, doesn’t mean it’s getting warmer yet. In fact, they’ve had some tremendously cold days at the Pole, with the thermometer hitting –100 F last week.
As the sun rises and brightens the sky, thoughts turn to the arrival of summer visitors. Still a ways off, but there is plenty of station prep and cleaning to be done in the meantime. Outside, the IceCube Lab and some other structures are now becoming visible again in daylight.
The satellite dome sits frosted over as it waits for the sunrise—here it’s shown backlit by a full moon. It’s a peaceful scene, which is also how IceCube’s winterovers generally described last week at the Pole.
WIPAC and the Arts + Literature Laboratory (ALL) are kicking off the school year with a September exhibition featuring artworks inspired by scientific research led by physicists from UW–Madison, including scientists from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory as well as faculty from the Department of Physics.
IceCube winterover Johannes’s camera withstood a time-lapse session outdoors last week—a little frosty looking afterward but still able to crank out some fine-looking photos.
False alarm from week 32—aurora viewing remained in full force last week at the Pole. In fact, the skies were graced with some purple auroras, pretty rare in general, even at the bottom of the world.
Who knows, but it could be that this fantastic shot is the last we’ll see of the auroras from the Pole for a while. So, why not go out with a bang—big, bright, and set against a starry Milky Way backdrop.
It was a pretty busy time last week at the Pole. IceCube’s winterovers had some unrelated hardware incidents that required troubleshooting and fixing, and a trip out to the IceCube Lab. And look what a great photo winterover Raffaela captured on that trip, with the ICL backlit by a full moon.