After the South Pole station closes for the winter, the remaining winter crew has a few short weeks to take care of any outdoor business before the sun sets and leaves them in darkness for months.
A few aircraft stopped at the South Pole last week for refueling. The plane here is a Basler BT-67, flying for the Australian Antarctic Program.
So that’s it—the station has officially closed, leaving 42 individuals at the Pole to take care of business during the winter months.
Since the sun will soon be gone for quite a long stretch, you might as well try to get as much of it while you can. Last week, IceCube winterover Yuya did just that with his camera, capturing a nice time-lapse of the sun around midnight that made a little “smile” in the sky.
Last week the IceCube team completed their planned upgrades for the radio and scintillator arrays. Here we see an antenna that got deployed on the ice.
Although summer is coming to an end, it’s not over yet. Planes are still flying to and from the Pole—here we see two twin otters in the air.
Ah, penguins! Who doesn’t love them? Both of IceCube’s winterovers got to view and photograph penguins recently, but not at the South Pole—no animals can survive the extreme cold temperatures of the Pole.
Life at the South Pole is full of traditions. And as one year ends and another begins, anticipation always mounts for a special tradition: the unveiling of the new South Pole marker.
The last full week of 2019 was a busy one at the South Pole. Yes, there were the holiday festivities (and a group photo!), but plenty of work was going on as well.
It’s always a white Christmas at the South Pole. It was also summer solstice at the Pole, and the winterovers got outdoors for some nice shots of the station.