17 January 2023 Science Spotlight at the South Pole!

Journal

SO. MUCH. SCIENCE

Over my two weeks here at the South Pole, I have gotten to meet THE most amazing scientists working on the coolest projects! I want to highlight some of them here for you!

IceCube

Obviously, IceCube has to go first. This is the research team I am here with! IceCube has thousands of sensors melted into the ice to pick up light given off by neutrino interactions. This information can help us find out where the neutrino came from, and give us more info about the universe! Marc and Hrvoje are the scientists who will be "wintering over" to help keep IceCube running through the year!

Two people in red jackets peak out from underneath the Geographic South Pole sign — Hrvoje (L) and Marc (R) are have a great time here so far! Photo by Elaine Krebs.

The sun peaks out behind the IceCube Laboratory — This has been such a cool place to work! Photo by Elaine Krebs.

ARA

ARA stands for the Askaryan Radio Array. This project works with IceCube to detect neutrinos. However, ARA uses radio waves, not visible light to detect them. I have been helping the ARA project a lot to dig up and fix their equipment! Alisa and Justin are the scientists from ARA who I have been working with down here!

Three people in a wooden vault in the snow — Look I helped! I wrote schematics for the vault as Justin unplugged cables, and Alisa provided tape to seal them. Photo by Luis Gonzalez.

South Pole Telescope

This experiment is our neighbor out in the "Dark Sector" at the South Pole. They are using their awesome telescope to look at the oldest light of our universe! This is a massive experiment and every researcher is looking at something a little different to help us piece together more information about deep space!

A man points at a scientific poster — There is so much cool science being done here! Photo by Elaine Krebs.

Elaine stands in front of a large white telescope — The South Pole Telescope is so cool! Photo by Melanie.

COLDEX

COLDEX is a team of researchers looking for the oldest ice in the world. They are currently here surveying areas that will be good to drill to find old, unmelted ice! The chemistry of this ice can help us paint a picture of what the world's environment looked like many years ago.

A group of people are seated in a cafeteria looking at TV monitors — COLDEX gave a great talk in the galley about the work they're doing all over Antarctica! Photo by Elaine Krebs.

Optical Fiber Seismic Activity

Martin and Zhongwen from CalTech are studying seismic activity in a whole new way! They are attaching sensors to a fiber optic cable, and then striking a hammer on the ground. This hammer creates sound waves that travel through the ice to the bedrock, and then bounce back up towards the sensors. They can use this information to find out more about layers underneath the ice, and much more!

Two men in red jackets stand in front of a pisten bully. Photo by Elaine Krebs — Martin and Zhongwen attached a hammer to this PistenBully for their experiment! Photo by Elaine Krebs.

Auroras

Kylee and Cameron are here studying the thermal winds in our atmosphere! They have a super cool camera that can take images of the auroras above the South Pole during the winter. The different colors of auroras give them information about these beautiful events!

A women talks behind a laptop screen with a telescope diagram. — Kylee explains their super innovative camera! Photo by Elaine Krebs.

A person with her arms up in a black and white camera — That's me in the cool camera! Photo by Kylee Branning

MeteorologyMeteorology is the study of the atmosphere, weather and weather conditions.

Kyle has a very important job here - every day, twice a day, he launches a weather balloon up into the atmosphere. This gives us information about air pressure which he can use to predict future weather. This is really important for flights coming in and out of the South Pole. One day, Kyle let me help him launch one of the balloons!