The Neutrino Telescope

The sun is finally above the horizon! One sunrise and one sunset per year, something to celebrate. But the temps are still what we've seen for a long time and won't change drastically until November, after I leave...Go figure!

In my last post I mentioned the high winds and how snow drifting had accumulated around the station. The below image was taken in January when I arrived and when a lot of snow moving and clearing takes place to keep things accessible during the busy summer season.

The below photo was taken about a week ago. Need I say more?

The Neutrino Telescope, IceCube!

This particular telescope takes up an entire square kilometer of space and is mostly under the ice. It doesn't look up at the heavens, but instead looks for signs of high energy particles traversing the earth from light years away, even from the edge of the universe. These high-energy subatomic "ghost" particles are called neutrinos and travel immense cosmological distances practically unchanged since they were born 15 billion years ago, soon after the formation of the universe. Neutrinos are also produced in space during the birth, collision, and deaths of stars, more so during the explosions of supernovae.

Below photos by Christian C. "Dr. Sprinkles"

The IceCube Lab sits above the ice and contains all of the equipment needed to power and monitor the detector array that is deep in the ice, almost two miles deep. The array consists of 86 strings of 60 sensors each for a total of 5,160 sensors that were lowered into the ice after holes were drilled with a specially designed hot water drill. In the blow image one can begin to grasp the scale of the sensor array that is buried deep below the lab.

Each sensor or DOM (Digital Optical Module) contains very light sensitive electronics that can detect passing neutrinos only by the light they emit when interacting with the very clear, transparent ice that is found deep in the Antarctic plateau, hence the term "ghost" particle, the actual particle is not seen. The DOMs time stamp the light emitted and reconstruct a direction of travel from a possible point of origin in space. Neutrinos are studied to gain a better understanding of the universe and are also candidates for dark matter, specifically hot dark matter, another cosmic mystery. 

In the above photo you can see a DOM of the type that make up the sensor array, not small or lightweight. The IceCube experiment runs without issue, most of the time, but when things do go wrong corrective action needs to be swift. Below are components that were being re-built after failure and put back into service. Repairs are done by the two person science team assigned to the telescope.

Next Post? The Clean Air Sector

South Pole Telescopes

Weather this time of year can be and has been very erratic. We have seen temperature swings from -107F to -45F and winds in excess of 24 knots the past few weeks. It's hard to see in the below image, but there are snow drifts as high as 20 feet in some areas.

Although we cannot yet see the sun, it's inching ever closer to us and is scheduled to break the horizon on or about the 22nd of this month. We are all looking forward to it. At this point darkness will not fall again at the South Pole until March. 24 hr sunlight is here!

South Pole Telescopes:

There are three microwave telescopes here at the South Pole, at this time all of them are observing the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in a "clean" area of space that allows them to peer deep into the universe's past without too much interference from galaxy clusters. The 10 meter telescope seen far left in the image below also surveys galaxy clusters during certain times of the year. By observing the CMB these telescopes are looking for clues about the early formation of the universe when it was less than a fraction of a second old and theorized to have expanded or inflated exponentially during that tiny fraction of a second. These telescopes are looking for signs of gravitational waves that are theorized to have been caused during that period of rapid expansion. Cool stuff!

Next Post? The Neutrino Telescope

South Pole Science Balloons

This past week we experienced some of the coldest temperatures and highest altitudes seen this season. We got down to -107.8 F and saw altitudes just shy of 12,000 feet above sea level making any outdoor activity even more difficult than usual. 

The sun is now a mere 4 degrees below the horizon and there is enough ambient light that we no longer need headlamps when outdoors. With good visibility we can see the furthest structures within the complex and the massive snow drifting that has accumulated throughout. 

In the above photo you can see a very rare phenomena, the earliest sighting of the sun to date. This was due to thermal layering in the atmosphere that refracted the sun's image on our horizon. Very exiting! 

Science Balloons:

Here at the South Pole balloons are launched for weather observations (as seen in my previous post) and for scientific observations that have to do with measuring the amount and density of ozone in the atmosphere. We have all heard about the hole in the ozone layer now for many decades and it appears to be getting smaller, a good thing since it protects every living thing on the planet from the sun's harmful UV rays.

The balloons used for ozone measurements are partially filled and prepped in the BIF as with the meteorological balloons. These balloons fly high into the stratosphere and when fully inflated and depending on the model thy can be very large. I assisted with a launch some time ago and that particular model was 45 feet tall by 18.5 feet in diameter when fully inflated.

In the above photo you can see the partially inflated balloon and the rest of it on the prep table while the doors to the BIF are opened for the launch.

These balloons take two people to launch due to their size and wind speed. One person holds the partially inflated balloon and the other unfurls the rest of the balloon also holding  the sensor package that will transmit information back to the ground.

In the above photo one can see the barely inflated balloon in the distance after launch. As the balloon rises into the atmosphere the pressure decreases and the helium inside expands filling it to full capacity, 45 feet tall and 18.5 feet in diameter.

Next Post? South Pole Telescopes

Science: South Pole Weather Balloons

It's still cold and look at that barometer! We are more than 2 miles up with two thirds the oxygen that the rest of you enjoy at sea level. Amazing what the body can adjust to.

Yes, that is sunlight you see on the horizon. We will not be seeing the sun itself for a few more weeks but the brightness increases everyday. Bring it! 

South Pole Balloons:

Not party balloons, but weather balloons. Here in Antarctica weather forecasting is very tricky due to the lack of data present to model what the weather will be doing. A day ahead is difficult to forecast, never mind several days out. The continent can fit the lower 48 US states and Mexico and has less than a dozen locations monitoring weather during the winter months, compared to the thousands of locations and sensors throughout the US that provide real time shared information for weather modeling and forecasting. Weather forecasting becomes even more critical during the summer season when there are flights coming in and out of the continent. Balloons with sensors are periodically launched in order to gather actual temperatures, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, all at varying altitudes. In the below photo you can see the BIF (Balloon Inflation Facility) with its huge doors.

Inside the BIF balloons are filled with helium, prepped and sensors attached.

I have had the opportunity to assist with a few launches over the past several months and have learned a lot in the process. In the below picture you can see the sensor that collects all of the needed data in my left hand, they are relatively compact and robust.

 Next Post? South Pole Science Balloons