Update

Now Archived! Antarctica Day Celebration event with Lesley Anderson and Dr. Jim Madsen on Monday, 4 December 2017. You can access this and other events on the PolarConnect Archives site.

What Are They Doing?

Photo by Jim Haugen
A DOM (Digital Optical Module) being lowered into the ice. Photo by Jim Haugen.
Why go to the bottom of the world to explore the universe? Because it is a nearly ideal place to study one of the most elusive particles known, the almost massless subatomic messenger called the neutrino. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole searches for neutrinos from the most powerful astrophysical sources: events like exploding stars and extreme environments around black holes and neutron stars. This requires a large detector, and IceCube is the largest detector by volume ever built, encompassing a cubic kilometer of instrumented ice. That much ice weighs more than all the people in the world!

The fully built Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) project will have an effective volume 100 times larger than IceCube. The tradeoff is that it will only be capable of observing radio waves from interactions with extremely high energy neutrinos, a million times more energetic than the neutrinos produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere. IceCube studies those lower energy atmospheric neutrinos, 100,000 per year, to learn more about neutrino properties, including their ability to transform from one type to another.

The universe is a huge and mysterious place that is largely unexplored. New technologies and creative approaches allow us to see things that aren’t directly viewable. Neutrinos will reveal new information about the Universe that can’t be recorded with optical or even more exotic telescopes that measure other types of light, like radio waves, microwaves, x-rays, and gamma rays. Many different roles and talents are needed to develop new approaches—technicians to make and operate new machines, computer experts to store and retrieve data, and scientists to define goals, identify promising projects, and guide students. IceCube and ARA are discovery instruments that will lead to a greater understanding of the cosmos and will hopefully uncover new mysteries for scientists to solve.

Where Are They?

Photo by Michelle Brown
The IceCube building. Photo by Michelle Brown.
The team works at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. The IceCube site is about one kilometer from the South Pole station, which supplies the necessary logistics of food, power, and shelter. Despite the cold outside, life inside the station is relatively luxurious with comfortable beds, cooked meals, and showers twice a week. The South Pole is reached by plane from McMurdo Station on the coast of Antarctica, accessible from the end of October through mid-February, after which time temperatures become too low for planes to operate safely. About 40 people remain at the South Pole station the rest of the year, which is known as wintering over. IceCube has two people dedicated to overseeing the operation of the telescope during this period at the South Pole.

Latest Journals

On December 29th we boarded a LC-130 at the South Pole that would take us back to McMurdo Station. I didn't realize how much I had become attached to this place and the people there until I made the final round of goodbyes in the galley during lunchtime just before I left. Nothing could have…
In one of the most remote places in the world, it can be hard to imagine spending the holidays without loved ones around. But when you're surrounded by some of the most hard working and giving people who also find themselves isolated at the holidays, you find yourself surrounded with a new family…
Today I helped meteorologist, Katie Koster, launch a weather balloon. Katie is a molecular biologist by training, but now finds herself staying for the winter to launch weather balloons from the South Pole Station. Every day at 10:00 A.M. and 10:00 P.M. a balloon is launched from the South Pole…
50 feet below the South Pole station begins a series of tunnels leading to Rod wells that house fresh drinking water. A 'Rod well' is created by hot water drilling into the ice until water is reached. As more hot water is added, the ice continues to melt, creating a bowl that contains freshly…
Dates
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Location
South Pole, Antarctica
Project Funded Title
IceCube and the Askaryan Radio Array
Lesley Anderson - Teacher
Teacher
High Tech High Chula Vista

Lesley Anderson is in her 4th year of teaching at High Tech High in California as an 11th grade biology and environmental science teacher. She studied biological sciences as an undergraduate at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where she conducted research on behavioral and morphological studies of tropical freshwater fish species. She is currently pursuing her masters of science in chemistry from South Dakota State University. In 2011 Lesley was part of a research team that tagged and tracked breaching great white sharks off the coast of South Africa. In the summers of 2013-14 Lesley worked as a data analyst for NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory helping to create an archival database for Arctic sea ice thickness measurements through computer programming. In the summer of 2015 Lesley worked for NOAA at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in the Marine Mammal and Turtle Division optimizing protocols for RNA extraction from sea turtle blood. Her students are currently partnering with Rising Tide Conservation to turn her classroom into a working aquarium laboratory where students can collaborate with researchers in order to learn how to breed ornamental fish in captivity. Lesley hopes that her research opportunity in Antarctica will help her to co-design a new project with her students when she returns.

Jim Madsen - Researcher
Researcher
University of Wisconsin River Falls

Dr. Madsen is the chair of the Physics Department at UW-River Falls and Associate Director of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory where he directs the education and outreach program. His research interests include heliophysics and astrophysics, which he has studied at his various projects in Antarctica. In addition to research, Dr. Madsen is committed to reaching a broad audience beyond the research community. He is involved in education and outreach for the IceCube project including professional development courses for teachers and science and math instruction for the UWRF Upward Bound Program. He collaborates with a number of programs and institutions in addition to PolarTREC, including the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation, UW-River Falls Upward Bound and McNair Programs, and service groups (Rotary International, Boy and Girl Scouts, university alumni associations, etc.). You can read more about Dr. Madsen's work here and here.

"Working in Antarctica is a wonderful adventure, and it is great to provide opportunities for others to have this awesome experience."

Michael DuVernois - Researcher
Researcher
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Michael DuVernois is a Senior Scientist with the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center and a Research Professor with the Department of Physics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He is an experimental physicist working on the IceCube and ARA neutrino observatories at the South Pole. His other research interests include high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, humanitarian demining, and detector development for particle and astro-particle physics. Less technically, he has bowled on all seven continents, and is found most Austral Summers at the South Pole supervising students and technicians. He has previously flown satellite experiments in orbit and through the solar system, balloon instruments to the top of the Earth’s atmosphere, and built instrumentation for mountain-top and extended ground-based observatories.

IceCube and the Askaryan Radio Array Resources

Overview

Students will learn about the difference between the methods of neutrino detection – optical versus radio. This will then allow them to understand why the relative size of the detectors is so different. Students will also engage in a hands-on activity to understand scale through creating models of the two detectors.

Objectives

Students can understand the scale size of

Lesson
Antarctic
High school and Up

Overview

Students will conduct citizen science to better understand the importance of subatomic particles in relationship to astrophysical events.

Objectives

  • Students will be able to articulate their understanding of the importance of citizen science.
  • Students can explain how subatomic particles can be used to understand astrophysical events.

Lesson Preparation

Ensure that every student (or student pair) has access

Lesson
Antarctic
High school and Up

Introduction

PolarTREC, the teacher-research program run through ARCUS (Arctic Research Consortium of the United States) and the National Science Foundation is a transformative, inspirational, and highly valuable experience for science teachers. Being provided with the opportunity to engage in authentic scientific practices allows teachers to enrich their own classroom activities and inspires the next generation of young scientists to

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Antarctic
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Lesley Anderson was connected with local California radio station KSON before and during her trip to South Pole, Antarctica as part of the PolarTREC program. 1. KSON Radio Station hosts a live interview with Lesley Anderson at the food fund in Bonita, CA.: http://www.kson.com/media/audio-channel/john-and-tammys-food-fund-friday-bonita 2. Article in John & Tammy Blog (see downloadable article). 3. Facebook post during her stay

Audio
Antarctic
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The Star News, a Chula Vista newspaper interviews Lesley Anderson about her experience studying neutrinos at the South Pole and her plans to bring the research back into her classroom.

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Antarctic
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2017 Antarctica Day celebration with PolarTREC teacher Lesley Anderson speaking from the South Pole, and researcher Dr. Jim Madsen discussing the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the Askaryan Radio Array. This event was held on 4 December 2017.

Event
Antarctic
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