It takes a long time for the sun to set at the South Pole. Maybe just as well for last week. It allowed IceCube’s winterovers to continue taking outdoor photographs of the landscape, and it gave them some light to see what they were doing while out in the field, driving around and measuring the snow height at all the IceTop stations.
The fuel arch under the station is one of the coldest—and creepiest—places at the Pole, accessed from a network of underground ice tunnels. The tunnels maintain an even temperature of around -50 °C at all times.
A quiet week at the Pole. And when the quiet stems from a well-behaved detector, there’s nothing to complain about. IceCube winterover Johannes and others took advantage of the remaining daylight to get in some Frisbee while they still can.
That’s it—the South Pole station is officially closed for the season. The few remaining summer people have departed on the last plane out, which brought to the Pole a nice supply of “freshies,” as they like to refer to their perishable produce.
It was a busy week at the Pole. There are always lots of preparations to be made before hunkering down for the many months of isolation and darkness. With the busy airfield, IceCube winterover Raffaela was out helping park a Herc.
The summer season is nearing its end. So IceCube’s winterovers were busy helping summer crew wrap up their tasks. That included some cleaning and recabling in the ICL.
IceCube winterover Raffaela got to see some amazing wildlife on her break, but check out what Johannes spotted on his R&R trip to McMurdo. That’s an icebreaker, which is needed to cut channels through the thick sea ice to allow fuel and cargo vessels to reach McMurdo Station.
When you see mountains and wildlife, you know we’re not at the South Pole anymore. But we are still in Antarctica, and these first few images are from IceCube winterover Raffaela’s R&R trip to McMurdo.
Since the winterovers spend a full year at the Pole, they get to fit in some R&R at McMurdo Station on the coast before the long stretch of winter isolation sets in. IceCube winterover Raffaela was off last week, after a two-day flight delay, leaving Johannes to hold down the fort on his own.
The IceCube detector started out the year with no major issues. Yay! But there was plenty of excitement in other arenas. Everyone gathered at the geographic South Pole for the unveiling of the new pole marker.