Week 2 at the Pole

ARA
NSF/D. Larsen

Here’s a photo ripe for WGOITP—a weird-looking contraption hanging from a frame, three kneeling people huddled on the ground, a tank-treaded vehicle in the distance, and snow as far as the eye can see. What’s going on here? The short answer is a group of scientists are performing equipment calibrations for ARA, the Askaryan Radio Array project, another experiment at the South Pole designed for the detection of ultra-high-energy cosmic neutrinos. The photo below should be less of a puzzler—it was “dog week” at the South Pole station—who doesn’t like to share photos of furry friends from back home?

dogweek
NSF/I. Rees