Week 20 at the Pole

A winterover standing in the dark, under red light, near a somewhat tall snowdrift at the station entrance.
Marc Jacquart, IceCube/NSF

Bad weather last week at the Pole meant more indoor photos than outdoor photos. But starting with the out-of-doors, the image above shows the front of the station entrance with a snowdrift that had built up after only a few days of heavy winds. They had to carve a passage through the drift for people to get outside. Even though the week’s activities were focused more indoors, there was still plenty going on, from detector troubleshooting to emergency response drills—training plus an actual incident that triggered an alarm and thus required action (it was a ventilation issue, with no resulting damage and a resolution to the problem in the end). The power plant operators had a few days off last week, and their usual rounds were covered by other community members, hence a nice photo of the power plant’s interior. And finally, it appears all is well in the station’s greenhouse, with plenty of “green”ery but also some nice red tomatoes ripening on their vines.

A long view of the interior of the South Pole station’s power plant.
Marc Jacquart, IceCube/NSF
A big tangle of greens in the greenhouse.
Marc Jacquart, IceCube/NSF
Close-up of pair of tomatoes hanging from their vine.
Marc Jacquart, IceCube/NSF