tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88850742024-03-04T20:40:45.063-08:00Just Another Travel and Science BlogMy adventures and thoughts on science and technologyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-61042784320746805192019-02-17T12:10:00.003-08:002019-02-17T12:10:46.001-08:00Getting Settled and Various ProjectsThe past couple of months have been a combination of extremely slow and extremely fast. Right now, things at work are slow, which has given me some time to explore and learn about a ton of technology that I haven't had the motivation to look into until lately. That being said, now that I have some momentum, I have had a ton of projects going on. I am not going into detail right now, but I figured I would give an overview on a "few" of the things I have been digging into more lately. Just to be clear, this is going to be a very tech heavy post with some more technical aspects discussed. I am happy to answer any questions that anyone has about anything I discuss... well, assuming I actually know the answer!<br />
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i3gaps/Arch Linux:<br />
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I decided it was time to do a reinstall of Linux on my laptop, and started using Arch Linux. I have been thinking about switching over for a while, but I was afraid there would be some configuration issues. Back years ago, I used to use Slackware, and I was afraid the experience would be similar. Don't get me wrong, there will always be a special place in my heart for Slackware, but it could be a pain to configure. That being said, either because I know far more about Linux, or the architecture is more mature, I have found Arch Linux a delight. I have to do a ton of configuration still, but the documentation is good where it's needed, and there are so many options now that I am starting from scratch that I have actually enjoyed playing around with the new system. That includes i3gaps which is a tiling window manager based on i3wm. I never knew how much I would like a tiling window manager, but I have loved this one. I have so much more flexibility with i3wm over say Gnome. I am sure you can do many of the same things in gnome, but I think it is more difficult. i3gaps is just so simple that it integrates well with other simple software. It does what it does well and makes it easy for other things to do what they do. It is pretty close to the Unix philosophy. <br />
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Docker:<br />
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I have heard about Docker for a while, and I had been meaning to look into it more, but until recently I just have a bunch of motivation. I kept hearing bits and pieces about it at work, so I finally started looking into it. Initially, I wasn't that impressed, but then I saw a video about it where a woman had used it to basically isolate all of the applications on her computer. Suffice it to say, I took a little more interest. In all honestly, without really going into much detail, it is a powerful system, and I can see why it is so popular for systems admins/developers. I have actually started to implement it on my own network, which I have been overhauling btw and will discuss some below.<br />
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KVM:<br />
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I have been using virtual machines for the past several years, and specifically kvm based systems. That being said, I have spend a bunch of time lately doing a few more advanced things on test servers. I actually specifically purchased a small Intel NUC system to use as a test server that I have run up a dozen or so VMs. This has allowed me to do some interesting server testing. <br />
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Ansible:<br />
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This is another tool that I decided to dig into recently after constantly hearing about it. It really is an interesting management tool. I have some experience with Puppet, but I haven't even used that in a while. I am still working on getting it fully integrated into my network, but I think I will be using this a great deal in the future.<br />
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My Home Network/Server:<br />
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I have been restructuring my home network. Mostly, I have been cleaning things up. I added an OpenBSD server as my router and installed DD-WRT on an old router to use as an access point. I updated the storage in my server from a 1TB RAID 5 array to a 12 TB RAID 5 array. So I have more storage and can move all my stuff off of the external drives they have been living on. I set up a Nagios/Icinga VM to monitor all the servers/VMs/network devices now running on my network.<br />
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Other stuff:<br />
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I have also been working on more security and privacy projects. A coworker introduced me to containers in Firefox, and I HIGHLY recommend them: Firefox Multi-Account Containers. This is an addon actually developed by the people at Firefox. I also have started using a complementary addon: Temporary Containers by stoically. Between the two of them, you can isolate your network browsing. This means that Facebook and Google and others are less able to track you. Those along with a handful of other addons, you can gain at least a little more privacy. Though, that is only scratching the surface of what you can (should?) be doing. I think I will have to make a post just about that one of these days. <br />
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There are also a few other things that I have been working on. I migrated my domain and website to a new system. I have been playing with some new apps on my Macbook. I did some interesting VPN work, but I have already bored almost everyone away, so I am going to stop here for now. I will probably come back to all of these topics in future posts in much greater detail. Right now I just wanted to get some thoughts down on "paper" as it were. So hopefully there will be another post soon!<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-8662706503427980072019-01-07T14:44:00.000-08:002019-01-07T14:44:05.759-08:00Am I back? We'll see!Over the past several months, I have avoided blogging. There are a few reasons for this, but one of the biggest was that I really didn't feel like I had that much to share. I really wanted to my blog to be about some of my adventures and/or science that I was taking part in, but I haven't actually been doing either of those things. Most of my time was spent searching for a job and waiting to hear back about job applications... There isn't very much to say about that, but now that I have picked up a position, I am hoping to be able to get back into posting on here. That being said, there may be a shift away from "science" more toward "technology", but I don't plan on completely avoiding or abandoning science any time soon. And in all honesty, some of the technology I hope to explore has connection to science as well. It can be hard to separate science and technology so we'll see how that goes. In the mean time, I have a ton of cleaning on on my social media accounts to get them up-to-date so that they don't still all say that I am down at the bottom of the world! But after I get things cleaned up, hopefully, I can get a few interesting posts up. Soon, I also hope to have some interesting flying posts, so there will be more adventures ahead, but I have a few things to take care of before then, so we'll see how that goes.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-45811283023219863622018-05-14T11:01:00.003-07:002018-05-14T11:01:50.602-07:00Catching up in AtlantaThis is just a quick update post. I am trying to get into a habit of regular blogging, and I have a few things I'd like to get posted, so I am starting with a shorter post while I work on some of the other posts. The last week and a half has been pretty amazing. One of the final duties as an IceCube winterover is to make a couple of presentations at one of the collaboration meetings. Our collaboration meetings are like scientific conferences, but almost everyone participating is IceCube. We do invite a few other science speakers to give talks, but really the focus is to get everyone in the IceCube collaboration together a couple times a year in one location to make working together a little easier. The reality is we have around 250 people in our collaboration, and they are spread out all over the world. Most of what we do is done over email or phone calls, but sometimes, you can make things go so much faster face to face.<br />
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This year the IceCube Spring Collaboration Meeting was at my alma mater, Georgia Tech! Since my fellow winterover, friend, and colleague, Martin was going to be in town from Germany, a few other winterovers decided we would get together and have a camping trip up in North Georgia before the meeting. So Martin flew in a few days early, and along with 6 other winterovers (and one of their girlfriends), we spent a few days camping up in Black Rock State Park. After a year of working together in one of the most isolated places in the world, you tend to form some close friendships, and it turns out these friendships don't exactly just disappear when you get off the ice. So we had an amazing time and were able to catch up for a bit. After this Martin and I drove down to the GT campus. I'll be honest... I was super excited. Not only did I get to see my IceCube friends that I hadn't seen in a while, but also, I was able to hang out with some GT buddies again. While most of my grad student friends have graduated, I was able to chat with a few professors and a few other local friends.<br />
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The meeting went very well. I gave two joint talks with Martin, a public talk and a collaboration report. I also had a sit-down with some members of the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics where I showed a few pics and answered a few questions. Interestingly, I was able to meet up with a few family members as well. My dad's cousin and her husband, who found me on Facebook while I was at the South Pole, came to the public talk as did some cousins from my mom's side of the family. It was great to have family come and see one of my talks.<br />
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So all in all it was a pretty good week. Now that I am back in Huntsville, I have a ton of things I need to get done, but that is going to have to wait for another post!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-3056647397413481412018-04-25T23:47:00.000-07:002018-04-25T23:47:40.514-07:00Back into the groove of things...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSR-70EJqGyXnCV1UFAqFIAgnZb8k0xIzOCmnuzYe54xtT4BazMLt41ITIJGi5IT44nWMLL8TE2qkECECy2r5z6MeYa8iCBREYeBOwR92aT5yBgHstdSChyphenhyphencEEU1Br0x2aCtjpwg/s1600/DSCN1681.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSR-70EJqGyXnCV1UFAqFIAgnZb8k0xIzOCmnuzYe54xtT4BazMLt41ITIJGi5IT44nWMLL8TE2qkECECy2r5z6MeYa8iCBREYeBOwR92aT5yBgHstdSChyphenhyphencEEU1Br0x2aCtjpwg/s400/DSCN1681.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Namibia!</td></tr>
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This is just a quick update post. I know I am way behind on my travel picture posts. In all honesty, I was having so much fun traveling, that I didn't really feel like spending too much time updating my blog. That being said I know a few people want to see pictures, so I am placing links to my photos from my travel here. I took thousands of pictures while traveling. I am sure many of the pictures below are not that amazing, but as I am not a great photographer, I take lots of pictures in the hope that at least a few of them turn out OK. I did go through and put together a quick highlight set (top album), but even that may be missing some good pics, so I am going to just throw them all out and let everyone judge for themselves. I mean, if you REALLY want to see them all... Here you go!<br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/8rU9W0bE4z2NvZ8t1">Semi-Sorted Pics - https://photos.app.goo.gl/8rU9W0bE4z2NvZ8t1</a><br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/HsZjrFQm9oHbvUb13">Namibia - https://photos.app.goo.gl/HsZjrFQm9oHbvUb13</a> <br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/pn5GWqSwJdCjCnqv7">Morocco - https://photos.app.goo.gl/pn5GWqSwJdCjCnqv7</a> <br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/RewKLPi8ESpl9OvY2">Egypt - https://photos.app.goo.gl/RewKLPi8ESpl9OvY2</a> <br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/Icr6YXXCRxcT3gy02">India - https://photos.app.goo.gl/Icr6YXXCRxcT3gy02</a> <br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/6kHS7ywm8bEhlbwa2">Laos - https://photos.app.goo.gl/6kHS7ywm8bEhlbwa2</a> <br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1962789613"><br /></a>
<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gg3Q2R4wLaJyCd2o1">Cambodia - https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gg3Q2R4wLaJyCd2o1</a> <br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/4oE4zJuAK5tnexC52">Krabi, Thailand - https://photos.app.goo.gl/4oE4zJuAK5tnexC52</a> <br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/gTkS36mnr7GIVvWs1">Chiang Mai, Thailand - https://photos.app.goo.gl/gTkS36mnr7GIVvWs1</a> <br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/bn9jCujOSjyurRkR2">Bangkok, Thailand - https://photos.app.goo.gl/bn9jCujOSjyurRkR2</a> <br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/wwp9mDFbYKjWD5iF3">Cairns, Australia - https://photos.app.goo.gl/wwp9mDFbYKjWD5iF3</a> <br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/9ZkPNM1F3kAVgxtB2">Adelaide, Australia - https://photos.app.goo.gl/9ZkPNM1F3kAVgxtB2</a> <br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/hkOtC3rZn9OqxbDz1">Sydney, Australia - https://photos.app.goo.gl/hkOtC3rZn9OqxbDz1</a><br />
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At any rate, there they are! I'd still like to go back one day soonish and write a little about my experiences in many of those places while the memories are still a little fresh, but there is so much to write, it is a little overwhelming. Hopefully, I can get motivated to do it before the memories fade. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-51615332344851697972017-12-22T21:07:00.001-08:002017-12-22T21:07:55.334-08:00Traveling Australia<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIDq0Xb39dmPAXqOtDx8GdC_pXJP1nyxk48S4ajw4PK7C3jz_rZI-BuFLW_tkFVqJSmCidm3hqjpPPcw8iUzibbHjoKaovd2_h_clbydzi3aVsBZy_kJRMiga83rskenmFBl_wQA/s1600/IMG_4513.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIDq0Xb39dmPAXqOtDx8GdC_pXJP1nyxk48S4ajw4PK7C3jz_rZI-BuFLW_tkFVqJSmCidm3hqjpPPcw8iUzibbHjoKaovd2_h_clbydzi3aVsBZy_kJRMiga83rskenmFBl_wQA/s320/IMG_4513.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset from our dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef!</td></tr>
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After I got off the Ice, I think I needed to clear my head a bit. Being at the South Pole for a year can have a mental impact, but more than that, we had the delays getting out as I mentioned in the last post. That being said, now I have been traveling a bit, and I think I am going to try to blog a little more frequently. Of course I have said that many times, so we will see how things actually go. Also, I have updated the name of the blog. Originally, my intention was to focus a little more on science, but given that most of my posts have been about and will be about travel, I have changed it up a little for the time being, not that I am particularly thrilled with the title anyway, but it will do for now. Also as a side note... Photo album links at the bottom for those who want more pictures!<br />
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Starting out - Cairns<br />
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As I stated in my last post, I wasn't able to spend much time in New Zealand, due to my flight delays out of Antarctica. After we made it to New Zealand, I spent my time getting ready for the rest of my travel. The first stop, and the topic of this post, was Australia! I have been a scuba diver for number of years. During grad school, however, my diving along with many of my other hobbies slowed way down. Right before I was offered the position at the South Pole, I decided that it was a good time to get back into it a bit. I went down to the rock quarry in Pelham, Alabama and did a quick refresher and got a few dives in. I was gearing up for more diving over the next couple months, when I got the call about the job at the South Pole... So my diving stopped AGAIN! Though that was a small price to pay for the most amazing job in the world. While at the South Pole, I decided that I would have to go diving when I got back, and where better to dive than the Great Barrier Reef? So in my post-ice travel planning, the first stop became a dive trip in Australia. I talked to a few people and one company was recommended, <a href="https://www.prodive.com.au/scubadiving" target="_blank">Prodive</a>. Actually, it was only thing I booked while in Antarctica, outside of my plane tickets. I didn't even start booking hotels anywhere until I got off the Ice.<br />
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So my first stop on my tour home was Cairns, Australia. I got in a few days before the dive so I could relax and wonder around the town a bit. I ended up hitting up a few pubs throughout that time, including an Irish pub that at one point had Sweet Home Alabama playing. I also decided to hit up the local aquarium before my dive. I'm glad I did! I got a few interesting pics while there, primarily for my nephew who was in a bit of a shark phase a while back.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A hammerhead shark I saw in the Cairns Aquarium</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ5cRcbNbSOdpMXWrYISBvbXbq6wNiT4o_iHgHmCZNRGdLQdGXXRVdJVZshcjO0Wi-ioGJFQneJo6NlAn7YMoT3xpj2oWoiXeI4fklxPVPWz5ZztR_Um0MeeJPBMNvmtTDRICwHQ/s1600/IMG_4490.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ5cRcbNbSOdpMXWrYISBvbXbq6wNiT4o_iHgHmCZNRGdLQdGXXRVdJVZshcjO0Wi-ioGJFQneJo6NlAn7YMoT3xpj2oWoiXeI4fklxPVPWz5ZztR_Um0MeeJPBMNvmtTDRICwHQ/s400/IMG_4490.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting ready for a dive on the Reef!</td></tr>
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The dive trip itself was a 3-day 2-night live-aboard. That means, that I was picked up at my hotel on Monday morning and they took us to a boat that we lived on for the next couple days of diving. We ended up getting 11 dives in, including 2 night dives. Here is where I have to make a small confession. At the start of the trip, I had around 50 to 60 dives under my belt (if I remember correctly). I was even a certified rescue diver through SDI/TDI. That being said, all of my dives were in rock quarries up until this point. So my first ocean dives were on the Great Barrier Reef! I enjoy diving in quarries, espcially when they are the only nearby place to dive, but diving the Reef was amazing. There were even a few others on the boat who actually got their dive certifications on the trip. That is an epic place to learn how to dive. One common question I have been asked about my dives so far is "did you see any sharks?" Yes, I saw sharks, but sadly, I didn't get any pictures of the ones we saw. Mostly, they were trying to get away from us! We saw several very interesting fish and<br />
coral structures. We also saw a few turtles, as you can see below. It was an amazing experience.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A turtle we saw while diving</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja75ZgIXPzrC3L9Wuu0tmvwoU2wjj6zjodIVwPaUb3j84EbjKVue78qk4CD6eF7bfi_komr8fVpdWH2dIrfPeCoBA5FbtOiXPAnWlZ7ReCqBMxNL_g-_L3fJmk4yVQa-ioj50BOA/s1600/20171215_104334.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja75ZgIXPzrC3L9Wuu0tmvwoU2wjj6zjodIVwPaUb3j84EbjKVue78qk4CD6eF7bfi_komr8fVpdWH2dIrfPeCoBA5FbtOiXPAnWlZ7ReCqBMxNL_g-_L3fJmk4yVQa-ioj50BOA/s400/20171215_104334.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everyone in Australia was getting ready for Christmas!</td></tr>
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Sydney<br />
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After the dive trip we went back to Cairns where I spent another couple days relaxing and planning. At this point, I actually had no idea where I was going next. I even had to extend my hotel an extra night so I could figure things out. I toyed with a few ideas, but then settled on a quick hop to Sydney and then Adelaide. Honestly, the biggest reason I wanted to go to Sydney was to see the Sydney Opera House. IceCube has some collaborators in Adelaide, so I figured I would show up and see if they were around. I figured between Cairns, Sydney, and Adelaide I'd get a little bit of varied Australian Experience.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlF0nfoxAU8rlXtuNbt-en-cqYBgh4Miae3VHjK5JNSrMO0AJkj2OL_nIBvEszEM4QWpzm5qVCHnmF4DcrsSAXaAre7XzoqxwScd6MwKvktGEP32l4QHVx5L7SGsRnqZsxvtTNQ/s1600/DSCN8620.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlF0nfoxAU8rlXtuNbt-en-cqYBgh4Miae3VHjK5JNSrMO0AJkj2OL_nIBvEszEM4QWpzm5qVCHnmF4DcrsSAXaAre7XzoqxwScd6MwKvktGEP32l4QHVx5L7SGsRnqZsxvtTNQ/s400/DSCN8620.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The iconic bridge across from the Opera House... I think this is where they shoot off fireworks during new years!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVIJX3lhtVHha6BZyOOzDcE_ru-tV9-3djeJRty_h-WUfCgu8bfs_dyGq3JkqBoUPTpGf6Y5H2j9c6RYxL9oC-cTHK12U4nIm5voTXgKCp-7yQzG5TXIrdxbQrT_1ehjySQfqyGg/s1600/DSCN8627.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVIJX3lhtVHha6BZyOOzDcE_ru-tV9-3djeJRty_h-WUfCgu8bfs_dyGq3JkqBoUPTpGf6Y5H2j9c6RYxL9oC-cTHK12U4nIm5voTXgKCp-7yQzG5TXIrdxbQrT_1ehjySQfqyGg/s400/DSCN8627.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me with the Opera House in the background </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Sydney was actually pretty nice. It is a much bigger city than I realized. I hit the ground running there. The truth is I am probably spending way too much money on some parts of travel, but since this is supposed to be an epic travel vacation, I figure I can live with it to some degree, but in order to mitigate the costs a bit, I decided not to spend to much time in Sydney since it was so expensive. I was able to get a pretty nice tour of the Opera House early on my first full day in town. It turns out the Royal Botanical Gardens are right next to the Opera House, so I went there as well. It was a great time. Other than that I did a little exploring and hit up a couple local bars/pubs. It was a pretty laid back trip.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zNH1xx4RZYYB9hQ_uuqwVyCmkLk30yEGU70UzwHQHAgtDHYaeNHuf6v3z0z0RemRsRLYoLhcOOAXKQY9s6B3DBLdkywm5eGkI0hRHcRcG31yQxSDLfZPfHt7Jr61gR8rfgE6sg/s1600/DSCN8659.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zNH1xx4RZYYB9hQ_uuqwVyCmkLk30yEGU70UzwHQHAgtDHYaeNHuf6v3z0z0RemRsRLYoLhcOOAXKQY9s6B3DBLdkywm5eGkI0hRHcRcG31yQxSDLfZPfHt7Jr61gR8rfgE6sg/s400/DSCN8659.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view from the tour inside the Opera House</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMcZ8886_Jn85uvwlaAucXWlAsRMYFH9lg2TrRrI4GK6NJliogvvwgkP8rrc5eQiH4uBrT52kjbnTpFmnJear-E-JCpjtORdPObnDWhXQ8k6Hq5FidA7vGAZkpXlO2ZA8sZi7p2A/s1600/DSCN8663.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMcZ8886_Jn85uvwlaAucXWlAsRMYFH9lg2TrRrI4GK6NJliogvvwgkP8rrc5eQiH4uBrT52kjbnTpFmnJear-E-JCpjtORdPObnDWhXQ8k6Hq5FidA7vGAZkpXlO2ZA8sZi7p2A/s400/DSCN8663.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another inside shot of the Opera House</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixCKmz9YYLDeuQ4qSSIpMjFDqJ32ZjsJeU8aV8MAtLsgY_4L731jGHn-BGyNvhsQidXfvNL7GOh1ImQRGPTYcb54xQSXOjlX5kJqsJjLMowvhd5EMKNApTbNbsMAb9fXkcG3Z9gw/s1600/DSCN8682.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixCKmz9YYLDeuQ4qSSIpMjFDqJ32ZjsJeU8aV8MAtLsgY_4L731jGHn-BGyNvhsQidXfvNL7GOh1ImQRGPTYcb54xQSXOjlX5kJqsJjLMowvhd5EMKNApTbNbsMAb9fXkcG3Z9gw/s400/DSCN8682.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An interesting bird I saw in the botanical gardens</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNA4z3Q4CMVfAiAN2hyQ1Kvwf4bZXOJb_WaT3Lrx06-ifmASZlplBmoDcIo5Cwz5_aN7hK5expYODLZGEmf9i_Bkm2QkDGxMx0_ZfJw0AzCLll66smZ6IX9DCs4pBpfaUA6jUW1g/s1600/DSCN8710.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNA4z3Q4CMVfAiAN2hyQ1Kvwf4bZXOJb_WaT3Lrx06-ifmASZlplBmoDcIo5Cwz5_aN7hK5expYODLZGEmf9i_Bkm2QkDGxMx0_ZfJw0AzCLll66smZ6IX9DCs4pBpfaUA6jUW1g/s400/DSCN8710.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sundial in the botanical gardens</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
Adelaide<br />
<br />
After Sydney, I flew off for a few days in Adelaide, which has a much smaller feel to it. I actually went to the mall there on one day since I had to get a few things. While I was there, I was able to meet up with a few of my IceCube friends Sally, Gary, and Ben. The truth is that ever since I heard IceCube had people down in Australia, I kinda wanted to visit. Thankfully, they were actually in town when I got there! I probably should have checked ahead of time, but where is the fun in that? It was really great to see them and hang out with them for a couple of evenings. Another surprise along those lines was meeting up with a fellow winterover Rick. He and his girlfriend happened to be passing through Adelaide on their way from Darwin down to Sydney. I was able to hang out with them and have a couple drinks as they passed through town. That was great and totally unexpected!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDHL7oeumYf8UaT1_bRTB2NbSAi8wO-IF9cyA31ijmW0m4DSrFPrwo3D1cVJyJW-VeZgH6PFNq43P5acszALJBzUPh7fiz8400z-V2h2rtpfJhtLL3WskFKxPJYEuecIdTp5c1bw/s1600/20171212_191056.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDHL7oeumYf8UaT1_bRTB2NbSAi8wO-IF9cyA31ijmW0m4DSrFPrwo3D1cVJyJW-VeZgH6PFNq43P5acszALJBzUPh7fiz8400z-V2h2rtpfJhtLL3WskFKxPJYEuecIdTp5c1bw/s400/20171212_191056.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I was told these were pretty iconic for Adelaide</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6UrXn7G_sQ57AUf0Lh2ekRdRH2CetiqWhwiG4_YEt2HCsgZUiMhH2anng3ANZ1JY_zWJVJeFzsuYG0AW-oEbZB5tRLXZeoopplAPfOZYD7NJSQdESswISC8cRwhSm0sCPrkme_g/s1600/20171212_191201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6UrXn7G_sQ57AUf0Lh2ekRdRH2CetiqWhwiG4_YEt2HCsgZUiMhH2anng3ANZ1JY_zWJVJeFzsuYG0AW-oEbZB5tRLXZeoopplAPfOZYD7NJSQdESswISC8cRwhSm0sCPrkme_g/s400/20171212_191201.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another Adelaide Icon</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7rYlXWyl45dy2JKdFrc_-1qHgeBT765x9rc6DCBq3Yae45BUp1-klog86dk6s9cQqaJ0bDCByZKmVSPwFY7Q2xPe3ag7Os-zHJLjwxfWZ4WxhB01809pvzSFotOYpvZbxrL10OQ/s1600/20171212_202124.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7rYlXWyl45dy2JKdFrc_-1qHgeBT765x9rc6DCBq3Yae45BUp1-klog86dk6s9cQqaJ0bDCByZKmVSPwFY7Q2xPe3ag7Os-zHJLjwxfWZ4WxhB01809pvzSFotOYpvZbxrL10OQ/s400/20171212_202124.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset on the beach with Gary and Sally</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
While I was at the South Pole, a couple of guys there gave a wine class that I partcipated in, and one of the regions they actually mentioned was called the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. So, one day while I was there I joined a tour of the Barossa Valley that included a couple of wine tastings including one at the Seppeltsfield winery and the Wolf Blass winery. The truth is, I still don't know much about wine and am not very sophisticated in respect to wine, but it was a fun time. At Seppeltsfield they had a port (which I think they call a tawny for legal reasons since port has to come from Portugal?) that was aged 100 years. They didn't let us taste that one, but I did get a picture of the bottle of ~$2000 AUD port.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI6iDsysEvoqQQ5m9QX1bNiZLQOGrIOzETFvA0DATdEmxCGfrtNJK7yJpCz_lEI4pmcdxLne709ZhJa8ZlxXIW4A-xUhbAQDWvTnW99dZZNxz6S-qdRGjoB7N_0PwNnowFSe_iaA/s1600/20171213_110446.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI6iDsysEvoqQQ5m9QX1bNiZLQOGrIOzETFvA0DATdEmxCGfrtNJK7yJpCz_lEI4pmcdxLne709ZhJa8ZlxXIW4A-xUhbAQDWvTnW99dZZNxz6S-qdRGjoB7N_0PwNnowFSe_iaA/s400/20171213_110446.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was NOT on the tasting menu... around $2000 AUD for that bottle!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlIlikrL1wXFuvIzNDN9mhQInVBCA_j3jR1BmQ2Yk5h0K4heLeb7chVXcU4WG7m7nt3Qo-SDlqHHVBbKwTC2Rr-B11vMSJZfm3NMusrce-TjrCANjOVBJMywAvFc1VnVomQnUxCQ/s1600/DSCN8785.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlIlikrL1wXFuvIzNDN9mhQInVBCA_j3jR1BmQ2Yk5h0K4heLeb7chVXcU4WG7m7nt3Qo-SDlqHHVBbKwTC2Rr-B11vMSJZfm3NMusrce-TjrCANjOVBJMywAvFc1VnVomQnUxCQ/s400/DSCN8785.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">But they let us take a picture with it, and I was very careful not to drop it!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOs-ZbDGqIuKdedO3PIxGY9d4uqtb9TGATk3LEsgGVkwCF5pibZgpYrtzCKPP9Q1B6E5n26955f-qtCLnqmvA11J9sD0zTnwNAvDLMlH0RQifa8l9oh11zv_4E3LtzcTTsE7X0LA/s1600/DSCN8797.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOs-ZbDGqIuKdedO3PIxGY9d4uqtb9TGATk3LEsgGVkwCF5pibZgpYrtzCKPP9Q1B6E5n26955f-qtCLnqmvA11J9sD0zTnwNAvDLMlH0RQifa8l9oh11zv_4E3LtzcTTsE7X0LA/s400/DSCN8797.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me at the Wolf Blass Winery</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
On the last part of the tour we visited Hahndorf which is one of the oldest German settlements in the area if I remember correctly. It was ok... nothing spectacular. On the way back, however, the bus driver told us to keep our eyes open in the top of trees on the side of the road as there might be Koalas up there. One lady with a sharp eye spotted one. The bus driver actually pulled over, and we all got out of the bus to look and take pictures. It was actually pretty awesome.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgxZWw3W6N_9aTZXLbWbJhhZVIPyPFyuox8ol-BQqYjgCPUtlwHV79dwOXzPy2sgWAECSulXMaHDWZrZUAybv5-w_8obdq5mKV3UDJqQwmG73j0fJ_2UJdCbN49r7i-SLdIL2Dgg/s1600/DSCN8808.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgxZWw3W6N_9aTZXLbWbJhhZVIPyPFyuox8ol-BQqYjgCPUtlwHV79dwOXzPy2sgWAECSulXMaHDWZrZUAybv5-w_8obdq5mKV3UDJqQwmG73j0fJ_2UJdCbN49r7i-SLdIL2Dgg/s400/DSCN8808.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Koala!!!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtUH8pCiv3Y4rxg4qPzTtbtbDla7tEnC4FiF3yQN7FbzLG8bhCOlcyoF6BZfIL2YGN5L5EbtGhhBCWUstGji9OJxlsGkqswTVzAOrXhKO3y9dDwSNBtfRyT7WRfHCCS2uXGpOnhg/s1600/DSCN8801.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtUH8pCiv3Y4rxg4qPzTtbtbDla7tEnC4FiF3yQN7FbzLG8bhCOlcyoF6BZfIL2YGN5L5EbtGhhBCWUstGji9OJxlsGkqswTVzAOrXhKO3y9dDwSNBtfRyT7WRfHCCS2uXGpOnhg/s400/DSCN8801.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For Martin! (kind of an inside joke)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikfs2TeJjYBZ-iEx3lsKJzFvW8O2FedwsUICf2WlVbBhLn__TCqi32Zm-SQfijuxNOQzG7M6nHOKEPNMJktVn8dz4TRLOiBXB3rOmrLVaQLGupC4hMpEFm4-9z4asvaIS4ZLxMWg/s1600/DSCN8805.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikfs2TeJjYBZ-iEx3lsKJzFvW8O2FedwsUICf2WlVbBhLn__TCqi32Zm-SQfijuxNOQzG7M6nHOKEPNMJktVn8dz4TRLOiBXB3rOmrLVaQLGupC4hMpEFm4-9z4asvaIS4ZLxMWg/s400/DSCN8805.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting ready for Christmas!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Overall, it was a pretty amazing trip in Australia. There were a few things I didn't get to do, but due to the way I am traveling, I am a little limited on time in many of the places I am visiting. I also have the problem that my drivers license expired while I was in Antarctica, so I can't exactly rent a car right now! That being said, I don't really have any regrets about my time there. Hopefully, one day, I will make another trip down under and experience even more of such an amazing country!<br />
<br />
And as promised... here are the links to the full albums!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Cairns - <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/wwp9mDFbYKjWD5iF3">https://photos.app.goo.gl/wwp9mDFbYKjWD5iF3</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Sydney - <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/hkOtC3rZn9OqxbDz1">https://photos.app.goo.gl/hkOtC3rZn9OqxbDz1</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Adelaide - <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/9ZkPNM1F3kAVgxtB2">https://photos.app.goo.gl/9ZkPNM1F3kAVgxtB2</a> </div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-17053842818957205782017-12-10T03:15:00.000-08:002017-12-10T03:15:25.427-08:00397 Days in Antarctica<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih0k5zwUMP-ELDXL_0bpdMerMQPNQRYHME_oUzbIDdjppdkWQxO2QUQn0y-PSD3xAYKTVd7u4kyBA5QfBtOq21sPKwPBcsWnf5mltvEmd42aYRzv-IN7cFZ8ZD2L7o_0zCIQisyg/s1600/IMG_9875.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih0k5zwUMP-ELDXL_0bpdMerMQPNQRYHME_oUzbIDdjppdkWQxO2QUQn0y-PSD3xAYKTVd7u4kyBA5QfBtOq21sPKwPBcsWnf5mltvEmd42aYRzv-IN7cFZ8ZD2L7o_0zCIQisyg/s400/IMG_9875.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The IceCube Lab in the Sunset</td></tr>
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I have been thinking about this last South Pole post for a couple weeks. Part of the reason it has taken so long is that I needed to clear my head a bit. Also, as you'll see below, the last couple weeks were a bit of a challenge, and I wasn't quite ready to post on it. In all honesty, I don't really know what I want to say, so I'll start with some simple facts and go from there. If I am not mistaken, I arrived in Antarctica on October 27, 2016. I spent a few days at McMurdo before heading off and arriving at the South Pole on November 2, 2016. I then spent the next 385 days at the South Pole, leaving on November 22, 2017. I then spent another week in McMurdo before finally arriving back in Christchurch early on November 28, 2017. I spent almost 397 full days in Antarctica. Now to answer a couple of the more common questions I have received after returning to the real world:<br /><br />1.) How was it?<br /><br />Honestly, I loved my time at the South Pole. It was one of the greatest adventures of my life, and probably one of the best years of my life. Yes, there were times when it didn't feel very adventurous, and there were challenges here and there, but overall, it was an amazing time.<br /><br />2.) Would you do it again/go back?<br /><br />Yes. The problem is that it may not line up very well with my future career, but if given the opportunity, I would return in a heartbeat.<br /><br />That being said, by the time I left it was time to go. While I loved my year down there, the last few weeks were very difficult, and probably not for the reasons most people would suspect. As it turns out, there is one drawback to being a scientist at the South Pole: we don't leave as early as the rest of the crew. I spent a year in one of the most isolated places in the world with very few people. In fact, for 8.5 months, there were only 46 of us. No one in or out. No mail. No planes. Limited contact with the outside world over some pretty poor internet. We kind of became like a family. Then, we opened the station at the end of the season, and a bunch of new people came in. This wasn't so bad at first. The bad part was when most of my South Pole family left. Over the course of a few days, 38 of the 46 winterovers left the station, leaving 8 of us to train our replacements. The first big flight out was by far my hardest day there. A large group of 32 or so people left on that first big flight and the station was filled with probably over 70 to 80 new people. I honestly didn't think it would hit me as hard as it did, but something about all my friends leaving and all the new people taking over the station was really difficult for me to process. So, I hunted down a few of the remaining winterovers to get away from the crowd of new people taking over. We basically hid for a while trying to get away from all the new people.<br /><br />After a couple of days, we were all ready to go, and then the weather hit. We ended up stuck on station way longer than anticipated. Almost all of us had our travel plans very messed up. I was supposed to stay for a couple weeks in New Zealand and travel there, but by the time I made it back, all of my time was gone, and it was off to Australia. I was one of the lucky ones. The others lost thousands of dollars in missed travel and experience they had scheduled. It is one thing to plan for delays, but it is hard to anticipate over 2 weeks of delays. Day after day, we saw more of our travel plans get ruined. On top of that, we finished with our work, so we literally had nothing to do but sit around and wait and continuously check the weather. Suffice it to say, we were grumpy and depressed, and there was quite a bit of drinking, and a few really terrible movies (for example mutant/zombie sheep attacking people in New Zealand... yeah it was that bad), to kill time. Finally, there was a small break in the weather, and we made it out of the South Pole, but then we got stuck in McMurdo. I spent my second Thanksgiving in a row on the ice. At this point 7 of the 8 of us still on the ice hid ourselves away and ate in our room. I love South Pole, but I really don't like McMurdo. We didn't know anyone there. We weren't supposed to still be there. It was time to go, but we were stuck.<br /><br />Finally, we made it out on a late flight from McMurdo to arrive in Christchurch very early in the morning. We were exhausted. I spent the next day and a half getting ready for my trip to Australia. I had one full day in Christchurch before my flight, and it was mostly spent running errands. I had to buy pants, mail some packages, and I even got a haircut. I did take a few long showers, but I didn't make it to the botanical gardens. Still, it was amazing to finally make it. Then one by one, the last of us started going our separate ways. It was a bittersweet time.<br /><br />Overall, as I said before, it was one of the greatest years of my life. The last 2 or 3 weeks were really rough, but in the end, I guess it was worth it as I'd still go back. When I started grad school, I stumbled my way into doing research on the IceCube Neutrino Observatory down at the South Pole. At the time I started, I had no ambitions to go to the South Pole or anywhere else in Antarctica. Then the opportunity presented itself for the first time a few years ago for a short trip. Since that time, Antarctica as become more and more a part of my life. For me, it was one of those places that you just fall in love with. Now after this last year, I can't imagine what my life would be like had I gone a different route. I'm still trying to figure out my next few steps, but in the mean time, I have already had some amazing travel up in Australia. Maybe now that I have finally gotten this last post up, I can start posting more of my other travels for those who are interested.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwms7ZHGZwdTwo0svdifHr-wge-CNmU2T6_RLY8hy9kn61B2-BO66rhPEW-pwzWhQYnnH-nipm09MeC2tCv0NqtWyTQSByOrgUM5kyD4-RhwcigWAz2Z4kMHi2BYUIxk4jsvqhA/s1600/20171128_175109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwms7ZHGZwdTwo0svdifHr-wge-CNmU2T6_RLY8hy9kn61B2-BO66rhPEW-pwzWhQYnnH-nipm09MeC2tCv0NqtWyTQSByOrgUM5kyD4-RhwcigWAz2Z4kMHi2BYUIxk4jsvqhA/s400/20171128_175109.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Over 400 days of beard...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-UcNpR2v9okiMQfVBR_PQSkRl03lJ4Ve8Tsf-Iajsr4-7UDuYjg3i_Mu2hv5i2FNAlE9d9YFQWFq7JQv0Kc3AbvlCyI52kbt-eEd2Q70D-xPJQ2FsxfzaLORU3gozihOsRmhRKw/s1600/20171129_140345.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-UcNpR2v9okiMQfVBR_PQSkRl03lJ4Ve8Tsf-Iajsr4-7UDuYjg3i_Mu2hv5i2FNAlE9d9YFQWFq7JQv0Kc3AbvlCyI52kbt-eEd2Q70D-xPJQ2FsxfzaLORU3gozihOsRmhRKw/s400/20171129_140345.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I feel human again!</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-15958841363913103322017-09-24T06:23:00.002-07:002017-09-24T06:25:37.858-07:00Sunrise at the South Pole!It has been way too long since my last post. Part of the reason is that I have been waiting on some media get get posted online. Last month, I was invited to remotely participate in a radio program (Inside the Black Box) on WREK radio, the Georgia Tech radio station. I spent some time talking about the science I am a part of down here at the South Pole and then I spent some time talking about life here. I was hoping that the audio from the program would be posted soon, but unfortunately, it still isn't up. As soon as it gets posted online, I will post a link, but in the mean time, I figured it was about time to give another update. To be completely honest and open, there is another reason I haven't posted. It turns out that being in such an isolated place as this does sometimes get to you a little bit. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but there have been more than a few days that I have felt like I was walking around in a haze with little to no motivation to do anything more than what was required. Don't get me wrong, I have tried to stay active in the community for the most part, and of course, Martin and I have kept the detector as our top priority, but really, I have watched more of The Simpsons in the past couple months than I really care to admit! That being said, the past couple of months started out kinda slow, but now we are getting ready to open the station for summer, so things have started to get busy. Not to mention there is an IceCube Collaboration meeting coming up, so there have been a few requests from the north for extra calibration data and work on the detector. The activity on station the past week or so is kind of helping jar me back into reality a bit.<br />
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In general, though, station life is still going well. There have been lots of activities to get involved in over the past couple of months. There was a wine class Martin and I participated in. We did a programming class that I helped teach. There was an eight-ball tournament and even a beer pong tournament. I didn't really participate in either of those, but several others did. We have had several movie nights with new movies when we can get them and some classics for those interested in older movies, and everything in between. The biggest event lately has been sunrise. We have had several months of darkness and very recently, the sun started to rise above the horizon here. We only get one sunset and one sunrise a year at the South Pole, but they last for days at a time! That being said one of the big events down here is the Sunrise Dinner. We all got together over this last weekend and had another big wonderful meal prepared by our amazing cooks on site. Before the meal, they raffled off the flags that have sit around the ceremonial South Pole marker for the past year. Earlier in the day they removed the old ones and put up new ones. Sadly, I didn't win one of the flags, but I am very happy for those who did. Afterwards, a couple of us snuck out to have some sunrise cigars. It was a great night.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhITsIz3iNTyeAOnQHX2vNxyQo0Xvdae-92dFXsAC8IRco_hFWvMlv8ImWRa1sz2W8p5pz4BauAG3xJiaqKkc1ISgHA1JJQ0sYMcF8Ifzhas5my-AXuMPrw5tg3HtQTpuLRSUFhXw/s1600/DSCN8557.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhITsIz3iNTyeAOnQHX2vNxyQo0Xvdae-92dFXsAC8IRco_hFWvMlv8ImWRa1sz2W8p5pz4BauAG3xJiaqKkc1ISgHA1JJQ0sYMcF8Ifzhas5my-AXuMPrw5tg3HtQTpuLRSUFhXw/s400/DSCN8557.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The sun starting to rise at the South Pole early last week!</td></tr>
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<br />One aspect of the sunrise that I will mention for you ham radio nerds is that now the propagation on 20m and 40m has greatly improved. During the long winter, I was able to make very few contacts. In just a couple weeks now, I have made over 350 contacts with people from the north! One goal that I am trying to hit is to make over a thousand contacts starting two weeks ago before I leave the station. For all those other hams interested, I am generally on 20m at around 14.243 MHz when the band is open. If 20m is closed and 40m is open, I will hang around 7.178 MHz or 7.182 MHz. I am trying to get on the radio around sunset or sunrise stateside, mostly but not limited to the weekends. Oh, and I have spent a little time with the fine folks on the Reddit Ham Radio IRC channel answer lots of questions about the South Pole, so this is a shout out to them!<br />
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Now that we are so close to station opening, things have really started to get busy. There has been a ton of prep on the station itself including increased cleaning duties around station, for starters. But the really big thing is that most of us are getting ready to leave and eventually head home. For many of us, this means some kind of traveling. I've heard that some people have even started packing, but that is kinda funny to me as we still have over a month left! I personally have been working on my travel plans. Right now, my plans are to spend a couple weeks in New Zealand, followed by travel to Australia, South East Asia, India, then hit Egypt, Morocco, and the Namibia area in Africa before actually getting home in mid February. It turns out, it will be about 3 months of travel, but this is an opportunity I can't pass up! I've already booked a dive trip in Australia and am looking into a camping trip in Namibia! I almost have all my flight plans in order, and over the next couple of weeks, I will be taking care of Visa issues.<br />
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So far I am still loving my time down here, but I am definitely ready for warmer conditions with grass and trees and oxygen (we're at around 10,000ft). As I have said before many times, though.... I know I am going to miss this amazing place when I leave!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7HmM4HCqA6uswaKZtImDZvee9P7d-xetIX02hoOYzk03d0-S3EF2JSxN7ArY_RG1E0k2uP0DUXVVIEOcbe-uBYF-ZKW_G9OgoNiGKgOATyJouelR6Zsy_dx_dvOocammnF6dwRA/s1600/DSCN7556.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7HmM4HCqA6uswaKZtImDZvee9P7d-xetIX02hoOYzk03d0-S3EF2JSxN7ArY_RG1E0k2uP0DUXVVIEOcbe-uBYF-ZKW_G9OgoNiGKgOATyJouelR6Zsy_dx_dvOocammnF6dwRA/s400/DSCN7556.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A
photo from earlier this year showing the Ceremonial South Pole Marker
and some of the flags that were passed out to winterover at the Sunrise
Diner!</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-27050428508031832622017-08-08T15:55:00.000-07:002017-08-08T15:57:09.045-07:00Ham Radio at the South Pole!As I think I have mentioned, I am involved in amateur or ham radio. My callsign is AI4LX for the those who are interested. It is a hobby I have been involved with for a little over a decade. So when I came to the South Pole for the first time in 2015, one thing I had to do was get on the ham radio down here and make a few contacts. It turns out, if you are operating from the North, it is hard to make contact with Antarctica in general as there are so few ham radio operators here. So to be able to operate FROM Antarctica was an amazing experience. While I was here the first time, I even organized a contact with the Georgia Tech Amateur Radio club, of which I was the president at the time. I literally made a radio contact directly from the South Pole to Atlanta, Georgia! A friend of mine back on campus, George KJ4JZY, facilitated the contact on their end. During the contact, I had some other scientists here on station at the South Pole jump on the radio, and I talked to some of the members of the GTARC back home. George was able to make an audio recording from his end, and I put together a small video you can find <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9yJjucNg28&t=1s" target="_blank">here</a>. All in all it was a ton of fun.<br />
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That being said, one thing that I really wanted to do if I ever came back to the South Pole was to organize a ham radio test on station. It is something that has been done a few times in the past, but as it turns out, it is not an easy thing to organize. Nonetheless, when I found out I was going to be a winterover this year, I decided it would be something I have to figure out, and thankfully, I had around a year to work out the details. After the station closed for winter, I started a ham radio class here for the other winterovers. It is very similar to a class that I have taught back at Georgia Tech where we go through all the material for the technician license, and then offer the exam. So that was my plan. I decided to have the class on Sunday afternoons for a couple of months and then try to have the exam. This sounds like a simple plan but there are a couple of problems. First off, you are required to have at least 3 authorized VEs or volunteer examiners to administer the exam, and I was the only one on station authorized. Well, there turns out to be a work around! In the past, they have used something like Skype to do a video conference where the additional examiners are located in the North watching. I contacted Maria, AB1FM, from the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) VEC (Volunteer Exam Coordinator) group and explained the situation, and sure enough she was excited and willing to work with me. We started trying to organize things, but then near the end of the class we hit our next and biggest snag. Our "fast" satellite connection which we needed for the video conference went down due to technical problems at the relay point in Christchurch, NZ. So, you may think, "no problem", they should have all the resources to get it up and running before too long!" Well, that is what we thought anyway. It turns out, not so much. It took over two months before they were able to get the parts and get the satellite up. This was two months with extra limited Internet here at the South Pole, not just for the ham radio exams, but for anything else we wanted to do on the Internet! That meant we had to postpone the exams. After a couple months of waiting, they finally got our satellite connection working! Now we were ready to go... except we had another small issue. We had to deal with vacation schedules in the North. So there was another couple weeks of waiting, which actually wasn't that bad, as it gave a few members on station a little more time to prep for the exam.<br />
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Finally last week, everything came together, and with the help of the VEs at the ARRL, I was able to administer the ham radio exams at the South Pole! We had 11 people get their license. Of those 11, 6 got their technician, 3 got their general, and 2 got their extra. One of the reasons I became an examiner was because I hoped that one day I would be able to administer the exam here at the South Pole, so this was a small dream come true. As I understand it, this was also the largest exam session ever given down here. Since we only have 46 people on station here for the winter and there are now 12 people licensed (including myself), over 1/4 of the station has their ham radio license! Overall it was a great experience, though it did take a little bit of work and organization get everything to come together. I can't thank Maria, AB1FM, and the others at the ARRL enough. Without their patience and help, this would definitely not have been possible.<br />
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I hope to do another ham radio post soon with more about the equipment here and some pics. So if you are interested in ham, stay tuned for more!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTaEbY4HeSsNMHv9EcBZnKkI0QH-9AWQb4JgjYBvKrhwrdnrwNSQeb8D86xqD3io6U5_NRJ3-MzgEdWv9cUPNlZufXTEVwvWkCs5UjdqWRqmVNMr6ap_DX0aBfP8t6qJxj3GHFjg/s1600/_DSC0930.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTaEbY4HeSsNMHv9EcBZnKkI0QH-9AWQb4JgjYBvKrhwrdnrwNSQeb8D86xqD3io6U5_NRJ3-MzgEdWv9cUPNlZufXTEVwvWkCs5UjdqWRqmVNMr6ap_DX0aBfP8t6qJxj3GHFjg/s400/_DSC0930.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The South Pole Winter 2017 Ham Radio Class showing their callsigns! Photo Credit NSF/Martin Wolf</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-46844288616009924232017-07-22T09:07:00.000-07:002017-07-22T09:07:05.719-07:00The South Pole Winter GamesI put this post together about a week and a half ago, but things got a little busy, so I got a little distracted and am just now getting it up. Hopefully, it isn't too late to be interesting!<br />
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The South Pole is one of the most isolated places in the world... especially during the long winter season. I have talked some in the past about the things we do to keep ourselves occupied here. We read, play games, play musical instruments, study. and hang out in our free time. We have had a handful of classes on astronomy, ham radio, and even now a programming class. We celebrate holidays like back home, and even a few holidays that are unique to the South Pole or Antarctica in general. I say all that to say that last week, we had an amazing time here on station. It started on July 3rd with the opening of the South Pole Winter Games. Over the course of the week, there were all sorts of competitions and tournaments many members of the station competed in for actual medals. Sure, the gold medal isn't really made of gold, but the medals were put together by our machinist on station, and etched with "SPWG" as a reminder of the challenges endured and overcome over this glorious week of competition!<br /><br />There were many "traditional" types of games including:<br /><br />
<ul>
<li>Vertical Tower (Beer can) Sprint (Something like 80 steps at -70F in full cold weather gear)</li>
<li>Individual Sled Pull (From the geographic pole to the ceremonial.. 150 yards?)</li>
<li>Group Sled Pull (From the geographic pole to the ceremonial.. 150 yards?)</li>
<li>Treadmill 10k (one guy did this in full fire gear... I have no idea why)</li>
<li>Volleyball</li>
</ul>
<br />A few less traditional games:<br /><br />
<ul>
<li>Ping Pong</li>
<li>Eight ball</li>
</ul>
<br />And a few games that were a little more on the nerdy side of things:<br /><br />
<ul>
<li>Settler's of Catan</li>
<li>Supreme Commander</li>
<li>Rubick's Cube</li>
<li>Photography Contest (for pictures taken during the games)</li>
</ul>
<br />Being the amazing athlete that I am... not, I only participated in volleyball and the Rubick's Cube competition. I only joined in volleyball as kind of a joke. The station physician's assistant and I decided to put together a team that would play just for fun and with absolutely no hope of winning. In all honesty, neither one of us really cared that much about it, and we figured we could find a third person for our team who was the same. Sadly for him, that person ended up being Martin. He was there when we formed the team, and I don't think he realized how little Catherine or I really cared about the game, but he wanted to join us. I think he would have done much better with a team that cared more, but he was a good sport, and I think all three of us had fun. I just want to caution you, if you see any supposed pictures of me in the tournament with pigtails and my shirt tied up over my belly, they are all fake. Don't look at them. We don't need those kinds of fake pictures of me being absolutely ridiculous making their way around the interwebs! At any rate, the volleyball tournament went as I expected for us... we lost miserably, but we had some great fun during the game.<br /><br />Most of the games took place throughout the week in evenings after the people on station finished with their daily work. There were a few games on Sunday after the opening ceremonies and a few games on the last Sunday before the closing ceremony. In fact both of the competitions I participated in were on the last day. The volleyball tournament and the Rubick's Cube. As I said, we lost the volleyball tournament pretty bad. The Rubick's Cube competition went much better. If you haven't figured it out, I am a bit of a nerd. As a nerd, when I got on station last year, I thought to myself, "Now that I have some free time, what can I learn to do that would really impress the ladies?" The solution was obvious! It was time to learn the Rubick's Cube! I know, ladies, I just get more and more impressive with every passing day. Anyway, over the last several months, it has become a mindless thing I do with my hands just to pass time time when watching videos or watching the detector. I have a cube that I have solved over and over again. So, when this competition was announced, I thought I might actually have a chance at a medal. Unfortunately, there is another guy on station who has been solving cubes much longer than I have, and he even taught me the first few steps on how to solve a Rubick's cube. Suffice it to say that in general, he is faster than I am. That being said, sometimes you get lucky. On the last day of the games, right before the closing ceremonies, we had the Rubick's cube competition. I went first, convinced that I was in line for a silver medal. I took the cube, and got on the platform in front of about half the station and went to work as fast as I could. I ended up solving the cube in 1 minute and 3 seconds! Not bad. They then took the cube and mixed it up again, and handed it to Ryan, the sure favorite for gold. He stepped up on to the podium and quickly started to work the cube, but something happened! He made a mistake! It's not that uncommon to get a little distracted or to mix things up when trying to solve a Rubick's Cub; it just slows you down a bit, and he ended up falling just far enough behind that he finished in something like 1 minute 16 seconds! Somehow, things had come together, and now I was one of the lucky few to win a gold medal at the amazing South Pole Winter Games! A third person took the stand and I think had a time of a little over 10 minutes, but that is still pretty impressive to me given that a year ago I had no idea how to solve a Rubick's Cube at all.<br /><br />After all the main competitions were over and we had passed out most of the medals, we finished with the photo contest. Applicants submitted a set of three photos. Adam ended up winning with a couple of amazing pictures and one that was truly glorious and magnificent, and I hope it never makes it to the Internet. I mean not because it was me looking and acting ridiculous or anything... Then the ceremony ended with the national anthem played on the electric guitar a la Jimi Hendrix. It turned out to be a really fun day. Annnnnnd then there was an Acopian power supply failure out at the ICL and I had to go out and fix it. You'd think that now that I am a South Pole Winter Games gold medal winner, I wouldn't have to deal with such trivial things, but alas, it is a harsh continent! So am I supposed to go to Disney World when I get home now? Do they have special accommodations for gold medalists like me?<br /><br />Below are a few pictures I was able to pull together. I hope you enjoy!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHapgEW2ojh6ergP45DNusGRvglXH_D-R2aWUY9dktNPXYExKMcavAMeU3YsIq0M9O0rEwnymMSKFsSPktGQpC2UbdiCS4mAdqqIrbhJ6RsOCYWTmq20cetfQg51JLgux4Qf81tg/s1600/_DSC0473.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1281" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHapgEW2ojh6ergP45DNusGRvglXH_D-R2aWUY9dktNPXYExKMcavAMeU3YsIq0M9O0rEwnymMSKFsSPktGQpC2UbdiCS4mAdqqIrbhJ6RsOCYWTmq20cetfQg51JLgux4Qf81tg/s400/_DSC0473.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I won gold in the Rubik's Cube competition!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdz1RJ2PL9-MLtIZH74fi5pE8c6qIhcXwpxdq6XMWuJRI4_JEtC3nyCw2qzttNaNqsNx-85vg15i9wM83nqhI-zw9bRXGx-Hf1mfkDjg3Xj3HgeOCWiGyt_B-ntHBebwnFoGtq9w/s1600/_DSC0576.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1068" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdz1RJ2PL9-MLtIZH74fi5pE8c6qIhcXwpxdq6XMWuJRI4_JEtC3nyCw2qzttNaNqsNx-85vg15i9wM83nqhI-zw9bRXGx-Hf1mfkDjg3Xj3HgeOCWiGyt_B-ntHBebwnFoGtq9w/s400/_DSC0576.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here I am with my fancy new gold medal!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqsoWg0SLSNO7plSJA37Z9gyVQ6T4N2ydTfiyHl3jK2DQad6fEjX5pt0CE4LdNhx7IbzZIlsnSweBqBOajT_czI-388FZuiw97VqmLufzyYNDMs83TimTqwftEstxbXAh456rLSQ/s1600/_DSC0097.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqsoWg0SLSNO7plSJA37Z9gyVQ6T4N2ydTfiyHl3jK2DQad6fEjX5pt0CE4LdNhx7IbzZIlsnSweBqBOajT_czI-388FZuiw97VqmLufzyYNDMs83TimTqwftEstxbXAh456rLSQ/s400/_DSC0097.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The medals before they were distributed</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgycwq5NSnf7pgZ382_uqvY60F5PiPpTkd7Lf-BE2X6UDgyygfhMfz4UrXO_DYFuGa1H5VKBfsaTmNI-wz_sNCBr7Mxj2-CcB1UaQvJkYnNEVHv87HViYXAIEBpVSLpG3obRW0RGw/s1600/IMG_0182.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgycwq5NSnf7pgZ382_uqvY60F5PiPpTkd7Lf-BE2X6UDgyygfhMfz4UrXO_DYFuGa1H5VKBfsaTmNI-wz_sNCBr7Mxj2-CcB1UaQvJkYnNEVHv87HViYXAIEBpVSLpG3obRW0RGw/s400/IMG_0182.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The IceCube Lab in the Moonlight!</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-67327908253353167642017-06-25T20:13:00.000-07:002017-06-25T20:13:08.979-07:00More Aurora and Night Sky Pics from the South Pole!A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to try to get into a little night sky and aurora photography while down here at the South Pole. This was largely inspired by my friends and colleagues Martin and Robert who have done some amazing photography down here. Well, really, it was inspired by them and my mom who kept bugging me to get my own pics. In fairness it is nice to finally have a few of my own... So, I guess thanks Mom! There are also a handful of others who are also taking some amazing pics, and hopefully in a future post I can link to some of their work as well. In the mean time, I have put together a quick blog post with a few of my pics from a couple days ago. I went out to get a some photos of the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud, mostly because at the time it was finally clear and there weren't even any noticeable auroras out. I was actually talking to another person on station, Hunter who is another of our great photographers, and until recently he has been trying to get pictures of the Milky Way, but for him the aurora kept getting in the way! I am a little less picky and don't mind the aurora, but thought I would take advantage of the clear skies to get in a few more traditional night sky shots. It took me a few tries to really get the images I was trying to get, as you will see if you look at the full album linked to below. Eventually, however, I got a few really good photos of the Milky Way and the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds.<br /><br />As it turns out, however, you can't go very long without those "pesky" auroras showing back up down here! After taking a few of the more traditional pictures, I ended up getting a ton of aurora shots. It was actually surprising how bright some of the aurora were after it had been so clear! They were also very dynamic, so I was able to get a ton of different shots all within a relatively short amount of time. I am still experimenting with the photography so that is why some pictures are brighter than others. I also don't do any post-editing which could bring out some of the colors a little better. I might do this in the future, but for now, the pictures are a little more raw.<br /><br />The photos below are a small selection of the full set with a little bit of commentary. The full album is located at <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/rCrTdSzRFdYtV8Xy8">https://goo.gl/photos/rCrTdSzRFdYtV8Xy8</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcNwAKTv_8NMoune1RkYix_opCE8IIUilpsTEm9Pblacjgu4pC0v4V_TcuW7S718Fb0fSZhEjhC4hr0yKeA0EkBmh_5hgc59fMnSPV0yvQfQ_1VPvehQv3wtTgI8BLjq0aaIk60g/s1600/IMG_0066.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcNwAKTv_8NMoune1RkYix_opCE8IIUilpsTEm9Pblacjgu4pC0v4V_TcuW7S718Fb0fSZhEjhC4hr0yKeA0EkBmh_5hgc59fMnSPV0yvQfQ_1VPvehQv3wtTgI8BLjq0aaIk60g/s400/IMG_0066.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Milky Way with the Large Magellanic Cloud in the upper left corner!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibDnDyOkaAgXt9DrFA2cjhm-_xJfVa3-nKTsnlF-3ExS2ezWxxzrfELB7wb1Y3lI6ACJqfjpg1xpqD30JVV5fS15IazHxUR17s-YWqGOauxRygirOqTjuaM2Vaf3NSFxwtVn6naQ/s1600/IMG_0065.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibDnDyOkaAgXt9DrFA2cjhm-_xJfVa3-nKTsnlF-3ExS2ezWxxzrfELB7wb1Y3lI6ACJqfjpg1xpqD30JVV5fS15IazHxUR17s-YWqGOauxRygirOqTjuaM2Vaf3NSFxwtVn6naQ/s400/IMG_0065.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Large Magellanic Cloud (center-ish) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (upper-left-ish).</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpVnm-rjGPlfz02n7_Xg0oecT-8AH63B0NmaURAoaY00m9Xzgpj8JY6M0yXDiZxUzdrY0TfVPfrtK1-vRnG0fl78h07qyBOeSsMYUp5RLGYeaidqMS7D3splNGFgKnZoLww0z1qQ/s1600/IMG_0078.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpVnm-rjGPlfz02n7_Xg0oecT-8AH63B0NmaURAoaY00m9Xzgpj8JY6M0yXDiZxUzdrY0TfVPfrtK1-vRnG0fl78h07qyBOeSsMYUp5RLGYeaidqMS7D3splNGFgKnZoLww0z1qQ/s400/IMG_0078.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me, auroras, and the Milky Way!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPTdYcGbyRoE3fMMq22BUM2BwBfVKWpLj1smzJGqvtEA2KywdEnXSFCYOJhZvjG2d0IrXLKm-OBnri_rEOoOaRnoLevMhpNZtCt8xJrBOvBinmA_XoohNDPOsA4IYrpVk1QFiXuQ/s1600/IMG_0120.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPTdYcGbyRoE3fMMq22BUM2BwBfVKWpLj1smzJGqvtEA2KywdEnXSFCYOJhZvjG2d0IrXLKm-OBnri_rEOoOaRnoLevMhpNZtCt8xJrBOvBinmA_XoohNDPOsA4IYrpVk1QFiXuQ/s400/IMG_0120.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I really like the structure of this one.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEcj27O6Bgh28oPNg1Kr_JphTLqrXj9knzbMUMtOKhVdApzIWhHt8ejJ7v-KVw9908OK26dOaGskZ_tRtlKEBrS2mq48O6NQdjD-AIgINpsrUtGmdDBphxZZ33Gq6Gg_jRNDypWQ/s1600/IMG_0121.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEcj27O6Bgh28oPNg1Kr_JphTLqrXj9knzbMUMtOKhVdApzIWhHt8ejJ7v-KVw9908OK26dOaGskZ_tRtlKEBrS2mq48O6NQdjD-AIgINpsrUtGmdDBphxZZ33Gq6Gg_jRNDypWQ/s400/IMG_0121.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one looks like a bird to me... maybe a phoenix! </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn9k1beKXvYRqJSmHeWNwL7SHMTKJr92rfgx-NTNyN9y2UAB9HZUMAj3T97r4x-M4jmjoAeVqnN6DNvcM9cmQFbWNXJLwoUvQX1ESMMiptfOToG1hdH9zmFtfe0dvdXjnrf05ecQ/s1600/IMG_0074.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn9k1beKXvYRqJSmHeWNwL7SHMTKJr92rfgx-NTNyN9y2UAB9HZUMAj3T97r4x-M4jmjoAeVqnN6DNvcM9cmQFbWNXJLwoUvQX1ESMMiptfOToG1hdH9zmFtfe0dvdXjnrf05ecQ/s400/IMG_0074.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aurora under the Milky way!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAAfylRP3pUOoHp7jmv1C7u4uyjZMDlbc6D1ckkCwKChDy9a06pC_YEtFosHqSOJGxpdimhLYWYS9wikbEBB0hzjedEPbfw3Z47BCJXMgZ-ZrbxRAYdbVeVT-u9JVgXD3er2cDMQ/s1600/IMG_0103.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAAfylRP3pUOoHp7jmv1C7u4uyjZMDlbc6D1ckkCwKChDy9a06pC_YEtFosHqSOJGxpdimhLYWYS9wikbEBB0hzjedEPbfw3Z47BCJXMgZ-ZrbxRAYdbVeVT-u9JVgXD3er2cDMQ/s400/IMG_0103.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The flag line leading to the dark sector is lit up with auroras!</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-53037971794798907002017-06-18T21:38:00.000-07:002017-06-18T21:38:21.272-07:00Midwinter at the South PoleFirst, let me apologize for my lack of posts lately. Over the past couple of weeks, I have tried a few times to put together a new blog post. Unfortunately, I have had a bit of writers block. The truth is life here on station has mostly become rather routine. There are a few things that happen here or there to stir things up, but for the most part, we live our lives just like we would back home. We get up. We do whatever work we have to do for the day, and then we find some form of entertainment to keep us occupied for the rest of the time. It is pretty normal, really, aside from the fact that there are only 46 of us living and working together in one of the most remote and isolated environments in the world, with some of the most spectacular views of the night sky I have ever seen... but still... It's totally normal.<br />
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That being said, every so often, there is a big event that breaks the monotony. In fact, We just celebrated a major milestone. This last weekend, we celebrated Midwinter. I suppose it is not that unique of an event in some senses. I am sure there are a handful of people and places that celebrate this time of year, but here we treat it like a proper holiday. We have a special dinner where almost everyone on station helps out with the meal and preparation. We come together to party and socialize and just have a good time. It also marks the last major event before sunrise. We are now at the halfway point of our long dark winter. In a few months, the sun will start to rise again, and we will start preparing for our trips home, wherever that will be. Many of us are planning on traveling a bit before we go back to whatever could be considered our normal lives. It is an exciting time, but it also means that our time together will be coming to an end soon. We will be leaving this amazing place that has been a home to us for the past several months and moving on to the next part of our lives. We will be re-entering a world that has happily gone on without us for some time. We will be strangers trying to fit back into an old mold we long abandoned, or at least it feels that way. Soon, the night will move to dawn and then full day light, and we will no longer see the auroras and the stars that have often inspired us. Leaving this place will be a major change. To some it will be more welcome than others, but I think for most of us it will be at least a little bittersweet.<br />
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This weekend for Midwinter, we had a ton going on. It started on Saturday with Martin and I doing our dishpit duty and then was followed by our weekly house mouse responsibilities where we had to clean up in the gym. After that we had an all hands meeting where everyone on station came together to take a Midwinter group photo. Almost all of the stations in Antarctica take one of these pictures and pass them around to each other for a Midwinter celebration greeting. We did ours in the gym and had a bit of a theme. We almost all either dressed up in our work outfits or had something to represent the work we do down here. A few people wore some sports memorabilia or something else to represent what is important to them. Martin and I wore our IceCube hats and stood next to one of our display DOMs. It turned out to be a pretty good picture. Later in the evening, there was a traditional viewing of The Shining. Sadly, I missed this because my sleep schedule is all sorts of messed up. I had to stay up for something like 21 hours just to make it to the group picture, so I slept through The Shining. The next day was also quite busy. I woke early, since I went to bed so early, and then had a breakfast of leftovers followed by a shower. As I have said, we only get two showers a week, so this was a treat. Later we had our Midwinter brunch. Then there was an epic facial hair contest where many great beards and mustaches were presented. Unfortunately , I didn't win, but I came very close. After that, I volunteered to spend more time in the dishpit while Martin volunteered to help clean up and organize for the dinner.<br />
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After my time in the dishpit, I decided to check outside to see what was happening with the auroras. The past couple of weeks the moon has been up, so it has been harder to see the auroras, but now that the moon has set they have been much more noticeable. In fact,the auroras yesterday were too bright to pass up! So, I grabbed my camera and headed outside where it was roughly -98F with a wind chill of -140F, and got some amazing pictures... as quickly as I possibly could so I didn't have to stay too long out in the cold! Then a couple hours later, dinner started with socializing, cocktails, and appetizers. A few of the guys got together and made us some old fashioneds with the only bitters that happened to be on station. They turned out great! It so happened that while we were socializing before dinner, the temperature finally dropped ever so briefly below -100F for the first time this season. Everyone was watching the monitors when it happened and most were fairly excited. Finally, we had an amazing dinner that was put together by our amazing galley staff. After all that, there was a murder mystery game that many people played, but I was again so tired and full, I went to my room and passed out.<br />
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Overall, the past couple of days have been a ton of fun. Sadly, I didn't get the chance to participate in every activity, but I did get involved enough to have a really good time. Not to mention, I got some decent aurora pictures. I am still really enjoying my time down here, and I am looking forward to my last few months here.<br />
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Below, I have selected a few pictures from the past couple of days. For more pictures, check out the full album in links below.<br />
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<a href="https://goo.gl/photos/XVWgyYJwrfkq9pA19" target="_blank">My Aurora Pics - https://goo.gl/photos/XVWgyYJwrfkq9pA19</a></div>
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<a href="https://goo.gl/photos/wWVPbDa1gXCDRoZE9" target="_blank">Midwinter Dinner 2017 Photos - https://goo.gl/photos/wWVPbDa1gXCDRoZE9</a></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-10004214144965808622017-05-25T00:10:00.000-07:002017-05-25T00:11:42.329-07:00Aurora and time lapse photography from the South Pole!The past couple of weeks have been busy and exciting here at the South Pole. There has been a great deal of activity with the detector, but also, the moon has set, which means that the aurora are visible again. The moon is so bright that when it is up it obscures all but the brightest of aurora and even those aren't as exciting when you try to view them under a full moon. Now that the moon has set and it has gotten dark, many of the photographers on station have broken out their cameras again and there will be more photos flooding their various social media accounts!<br />
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Before we get into the aurora, it is worth noting that IceCube had some big happenings last week. We generally run our detector configuration a year at a time. It's not that there is a big difference from one year to the next most of the time, but it is a way we can break our data and filtering up into more manageable segments. Most of our offline analyses are actually done a year at a time or with collections of "years" of data. Last week, we transitioned from our 2016 physics run to our 2017 physics run. This marks another year of successful data collection by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory! Martin and I assisted some of the scientists and technicians in the North in the transition. This process involves updating some software on the detector, and in this case, we actually retired an older system in favor of a newer and hopefully more robust one. Overall the transition went well, and we are excited to be starting another year of particle astrophysics research with one of the greatest experiments ever built... not that I am in any way biased or anything!<br />
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Not only do I get to work on such an amazing experiment, but I am also very happy to say that I get to live an amazing environment. Mostly, I don't spend a great deal of time outside, but when I do, there are times that I am treated to one of the most amazing light shows I have ever seen. Martin and I had to do some repairs the other day out at the IceCube Lab. Just as a reminder, this is a 3/4 of mile walk away in temperatures that lately range from around -70F to -80F with wind chills well below -100F. While out there, Martin set up his camera to do a short time lapse (available soon for the public?). He got some amazing shots, including one of the stills below. After we had finished our work, we headed back, but the aurora were so amazing, we stopped several times to admire them. Martin even tried to get a few more shots in before his camera froze. I have included one below that he took of me in front of the aurora. For those interested in more of his photography, here again is a link to his flikr account:<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/135762220@N06">https://www.flickr.com/photos/135762220@N06</a><br />
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Here in the near future, I think I am going to try my hand at a little bit of aurora photography. I don't know that I will be able to get anywhere near as good as Martin is, but maybe I can get a few good shots in here or there.<br />
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Besides Martin, there are also a few other people on station who have gone out several times to get aurora shots. One in particular is Robert Schwarz. Robert has spent more time at the South Pole than any other person ever. He is currently working on his 13th winter at pole, and is planning to come back next year for one more winter. Over the years, he has developed a skill at photographing aurora this includes a great deal of time lapse photography as well. He has a few websites with many pictures and his time lapses posted. I encourage you to check them out. <br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_296405182"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.antarctic-adventures.de/">http://www.antarctic-adventures.de</a><br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/southpoleskies">http://www.facebook.com/southpoleskies</a><br />
<a href="http://www.vimeo.com/polarlights">http://www.vimeo.com/polarlights</a><br />
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Between Martin and Robert and several of the others who I will try to link to in the future, we have an amazing group of photographers down here! They have done an amazing job of capturing the beauty that we get to see down here on a fairly regular basis, barring light pollution from the moon!<br />
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Other than that, things have mostly been going as usual. I am still working on learning French, and I think I am about to start on Russian. I have been practicing more on the violin, and I am starting to think about trying to memorize a few specific pieces I have been working on. I was trying to read a science paper a day, but that has slowed down a bit over the past week. I am hoping to get a little more focused on that over the next week or so and maybe do some extra reading to get caught up. That being said, I am sure I know why you are all really reading this blog, so here are the pictures!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martin snapped this picture of me (James) in front of some aurora and the South Pole Telescope (SPT) on our way back from fixing hardware problems at the ICL - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martin laying down in front of the ceremonial South Pole and the station, looking at the stars and aurora - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSXtKNbYPcSY6OZwSYBqrVOocJKZFcY1cdkiMUXPUO_bvnUwa19yT9e459jiblz9rLFcjdPlnUXL80gZzsyRoDgA4B2awBJY5QmgV_KaDZko0VqzefPqFkl28SGtrQP_eMrxIX_Q/s1600/_DSC1589.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSXtKNbYPcSY6OZwSYBqrVOocJKZFcY1cdkiMUXPUO_bvnUwa19yT9e459jiblz9rLFcjdPlnUXL80gZzsyRoDgA4B2awBJY5QmgV_KaDZko0VqzefPqFkl28SGtrQP_eMrxIX_Q/s400/_DSC1589.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martin standing in front of the station with aurora in the background - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kTKufX8E3PShmsiozyqLI5YOYWdUc5-Ctu98xFsIczG-EyhRKszSd7z1TSrlS5ePYafR7kiYFRlzL2DqkRlmj4GjDdHhdJwkgtKTtblRV5UVEe9P84cxuFFzbqWIaF0IeTxzJQ/s1600/_DSC7702.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1124" data-original-width="1600" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kTKufX8E3PShmsiozyqLI5YOYWdUc5-Ctu98xFsIczG-EyhRKszSd7z1TSrlS5ePYafR7kiYFRlzL2DqkRlmj4GjDdHhdJwkgtKTtblRV5UVEe9P84cxuFFzbqWIaF0IeTxzJQ/s400/_DSC7702.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aurora over the South Pole Telescope (SPT) - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsXaBftYb7Ln_YMlCrvsNqXMr7kIojYNHnQDr07dci2mYMEORPXXnHZW1lV6Sc2VISS3gOqxpjZNTCM2Nka9K3-0PvrpfNWZ_hRICR6jATOzMCBedMOAwd3IiOZAB3WtA54HuCIQ/s1600/_DSC1494.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsXaBftYb7Ln_YMlCrvsNqXMr7kIojYNHnQDr07dci2mYMEORPXXnHZW1lV6Sc2VISS3gOqxpjZNTCM2Nka9K3-0PvrpfNWZ_hRICR6jATOzMCBedMOAwd3IiOZAB3WtA54HuCIQ/s400/_DSC1494.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aurora over the station - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aurora over the station observation deck - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The IceCube Lab in the starlight - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The moon over the South Pole station - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBxXfBxOVqgUEjjuwmcmS3QBk9wL4zGlU0udwrhyphenhyphenyT8gxjnvc77ia6h5EKU3k-qzP9ZDQgEvGEjJHvD32MS6_DL_QHvUkfrzqG3sB79AwQQNRmGai16ecavf404DtR8G8yGB5c6g/s1600/_DSC1522.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBxXfBxOVqgUEjjuwmcmS3QBk9wL4zGlU0udwrhyphenhyphenyT8gxjnvc77ia6h5EKU3k-qzP9ZDQgEvGEjJHvD32MS6_DL_QHvUkfrzqG3sB79AwQQNRmGai16ecavf404DtR8G8yGB5c6g/s400/_DSC1522.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martin out in front of some aurora - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBHLuzSNtHoLpiFHzV6ElK9akK2a3ANdHPRvQwv-Jv4LbNxMRJYwdeCFkcfL0Nxvc5ZojcdYTQ1yOXZ6mSLPlTIvLgwn8sv8NwrHbhP0V5il7RTXOqP98YSqXb8M1AT89gZYn_2Q/s1600/_DSC1514.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1001" data-original-width="1600" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBHLuzSNtHoLpiFHzV6ElK9akK2a3ANdHPRvQwv-Jv4LbNxMRJYwdeCFkcfL0Nxvc5ZojcdYTQ1yOXZ6mSLPlTIvLgwn8sv8NwrHbhP0V5il7RTXOqP98YSqXb8M1AT89gZYn_2Q/s400/_DSC1514.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martin got this pic of our station physician assistant taking pictures of aurora... How meta!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ-UcpFI_kv8_6y5St8wXXA0KwXC6VA8nt1pnjOtszrVhdLTStpW64RtzkhURaLB0oJ-C1O6tSAbcJHnlUqL1dVrUp6yMEOxyRC2EcoGmH2x3p3qtN6HVdDscZBEqd79wdzu6EXA/s1600/_DSC1509.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1001" data-original-width="1600" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ-UcpFI_kv8_6y5St8wXXA0KwXC6VA8nt1pnjOtszrVhdLTStpW64RtzkhURaLB0oJ-C1O6tSAbcJHnlUqL1dVrUp6yMEOxyRC2EcoGmH2x3p3qtN6HVdDscZBEqd79wdzu6EXA/s400/_DSC1509.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is a shot of our station physician watching the aurora - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_LSaxzIFeNfEzdvcdeJxdg-uLvc4PDaOuA9cA7uCHj1UskIDTGq8pJgrkJVs19ZDtbTd4xc1KRysrpARajEmJWXRF5ga4A6xNW8jTP8cuOhl9vaqWRSpvcrBbMBwOuwFMrKLG9Q/s1600/_DSC7758.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_LSaxzIFeNfEzdvcdeJxdg-uLvc4PDaOuA9cA7uCHj1UskIDTGq8pJgrkJVs19ZDtbTd4xc1KRysrpARajEmJWXRF5ga4A6xNW8jTP8cuOhl9vaqWRSpvcrBbMBwOuwFMrKLG9Q/s400/_DSC7758.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another aurora shot with the Milky Way in the background - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq3AYI3b1dqXkPythtRkP2RqdfKr0B1eDyOH_CMjcCM0xUO1CfKePAcnCS4lfWyVhHN9ZdguGbuoizTqRB85nTxbj5TLtdam9hP2FX4GXiNcJObrWyMowgeTcoLF16B0aEaudfkg/s1600/_DSC8303.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq3AYI3b1dqXkPythtRkP2RqdfKr0B1eDyOH_CMjcCM0xUO1CfKePAcnCS4lfWyVhHN9ZdguGbuoizTqRB85nTxbj5TLtdam9hP2FX4GXiNcJObrWyMowgeTcoLF16B0aEaudfkg/s400/_DSC8303.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A shot of the Large Magellenic Cloud from the South Pole - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martin and James posed for a picture in front of the ICL to send to the IceCube Collaboration during their most recent meeting - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/135762220@N06/with/33738125163/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="16 Hour DarkSector Sky Time-Lapse at South Pole"><img alt="16 Hour DarkSector Sky Time-Lapse at South Pole" height="360" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4192/33738125163_ff2451b41d_z.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">16 Hour Dark Sector Time Lapse at the South Pole (you may need to click on this one to really see it) - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-2925828784375750452017-05-10T00:28:00.001-07:002017-05-10T00:28:36.564-07:00Pizza Night at the South PoleIn general I love being down here at the South Pole, but I suppose in fairness I am a pretty positive person, and I try to focus on the positive and look past some of the negative things that happen, not just here, but in my life back home as well. The reality is, however, that not everything here is perfect. The fact that we are limited to 2 two minute showers a week is one thing that comes to mind immediately. Somewhat off topic, but the first thing I am going to do when I get back to Christchurch when I get off the ice is check into my hotel and take an hour long shower, or maybe two... It will be glorious! But I digress... I generally avoid the more negative things that happen on my blog, because honestly, they are usually small and not worth talking about. That being said the past couple of month or so has had a few annoying things happen.<br /><br />The first big annoyance has been the Internet. We normally have three scheduled satellite passes that provide Internet for everyone on station. The first is normally the fastest. However, even at its fastest it is slower than what most people have at home. It is far too slow to stream most video reliably, especially when all 46 of us are fighting for bandwidth. So Netflix is definitely not happening, but on a good day, it is usually good enough to handle your general browsing needs, well, for the 3 hours it is up. Under the right circumstance, it could be used for a Skype video call, which is kind of important for me right now, but we'll get to that in a bit. The next satellite pass is significantly slower. It can take several minutes to load pages if you are trying to browse the web. There are even times when you will try to access pages, but they continually time out and just won't load. Sometimes you can't even get through to your email. Funnily, this satellite is called "Skynet". If this was the sentient network that would try to take over the world (as from Terminator), then I wouldn't be too worried about it! This satellite lasts a little bit longer, around 5 or 6 hours, but again it is barely usable. The last satellite pass is somewhere in the middle. Mostly it will load pages, but it still takes time. When I am on it, I still have pages that time out, but usually it works if you are patient. This pass lasts around 3 or 4 hours.<br /><br />The point of all this is that we have limited Internet access here. Things are slow, but lately it has been worse. Our fast satellite has been down for the past week and was already not working properly the weeks before that. In fairness, I don't suppose I can complain too much about that as I have slept through that pass over the past month or so, but I just finished my ham radio class here and I can't give the exam without that satellite. We have to have proctors watching from the North, and that is the satellite that has the best chance of getting a Skype video call through at the right time. Hopefully, these problems will be resolved soon, but sometimes, I get the impression that we here at the South Pole are not a high priority for the satellite people up North.<br /><br />The second big annoyance has been the kitchen work. Since I have had some questions about how the food situation is here, I will elaborate a little on that first. The majority of the time, we get our food from our cafeteria, or galley as we call it. There are three meals prepared six days a week, and a small spread for brunch on Sunday. If you work nights or are like me and for some unexplainable reason end up on a night shift, there is a leftover refrigerator that is usually stocked with food for consumption after hours. The leftover fridge is also the source of food on the one day of the week the galley staff doesn't work, Sunday, unless someone else on station volunteers to cook for everyone. The food is provided for us so we don't actually have to buy anything. The exception is junk food. If you want beef jerky, candy, coke or something else like that you mostly have to get that from our station store, but I think that will have to be a post for another time. Even still, there is always coffee, cookies, and chips out in the galley for anyone to have if they get the munchies in the middle of the day or night.<br /><br />A little over a month ago, some of the maintenance crew started a planned overhaul of the kitchen, and it went on for about three weeks. They had to do this during the winter as there are only 46 of us here now vs. the 150 or so people here during the summer. Normally, I really enjoy our food here. We have some pretty good cooks here and they do an amazing job with the limited resources we have. Keep in mind, most of our food is frozen during the winter, and much of it has been here for a while. The milk is powdered. It's hard to find green olives. There is rarely ketchup and almost never mayonnaise. The very few fresh vegetables come from our small green house (thank goodness for greenhouse tomatoes!). That being said, for those three weeks, much of our food was cooked on our emergency stove and in some industrial microwaves. For the most part, the food was OK, but it definitely lost some quality. There were more than a few days when people would opt out of the main course and stick to the side dishes, as the frozen meat cooked in a microwave rarely came out quite as well as we would like.<br /><br />There are a couple of reasons I bring all this up. The first is that I have had a few people ask about the food situation here. The second, and actually bigger reason, is to say that the kitchen work ended a week or so ago, and last Saturday, the logistics working group volunteered to make pizza for everyone. It was probably the best pizza I have had in a LONG time. They mentioned that they were going to cook for everyone earlier in the week, and everyone was extremely excited when Saturday evening arrived, and pizza was had by all! I have to confess, I have been thinking about trying to exercise and get in better shape while I am here, but on that night... I ate so much I made myself a little sick. It was great!<br /><br />The truth is I don't really feel like I have much to complain about. Things are not perfect here, but there are places and people who have it far worse. I do miss my family sometimes. I miss regular long hot showers. I miss humidity. I miss deep fried buffalo wings and green olives, and probably a thousand other things here and there, but the truth is, I am still really enjoying my time here. I am living and working with a great group of people in an awe inspiring place, and I can step outside at almost any time I would like and have an amazing view of the night sky from one of the most exotic places in the world. In truth, I will be ready to leave in six months and get back to warmer climates, again with long showers, but the truth is I know it won't be long before I am missing this amazing place, and the wonderful community we have made here.<br /><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-17951788031142964682017-05-01T23:51:00.000-07:002017-05-01T23:51:18.558-07:00Six Months at the South Pole!Today is a very exciting day for me! It marks six months at the South Pole. I arrived here on November 2, 2016, a few days before my last birthday, and I have been here six months as of today. It has been a wonderful adventure so far and I am looking forward to the next six months, especially now that the sun has set, and we are having some amazing views of the night sky with the stars, milky way, and especially the auroras!<br />
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Over the past few weeks, life on station has been fairly routine. The temperatures went up a bit for a while, but are now holding around -90F with a wind chill of around -130F. I generally get up every day and the first thing I do is check email and check on the experiment I am working on, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. I then try to move on to personal projects, assuming everything is running well and no one from the IceCube group up North has any requests. Thankfully, the detector has been running very smooth lately, and with the exception of a few small problems and some calibration work, there hasn't been much that we've had to do. As it turns out, however, the one "big" problem we had to deal with lately was a failed power supply a few days ago. For some reason since winter started, I have moved more to a night schedule. Really, this doesn't make much sense, as it is always dark here since the sunset, but somehow, even without any real sense of day or night, I still moved to a night schedule. That being said, a few days ago, I had just fallen asleep when I got a call from Martin about the power supply which failed a little after breakfast. Thankfully, Martin was on call and it was his turn to go out and replace the power supply. Unfortunately, when he got out there, it looked the like the problem was bigger than expected and I ended up having to go out and help. Generally, it isn't that big a deal, but now that it is has gotten colder, and since our lab is about 3/4 of a mile away from the main station, by the time I walk out there my balaclava (face mask) has frozen over making it fairly difficult to breath... not to mention we are still at roughly 10,000 ft altitude. Suffice it to say, that walking out to the ICL and back can wear you out! At any rate, after I got out there, Martin and I did our work which ended up taking a few hours, and then I headed back to station for lunch and to get some sleep. Martin, however, stayed out to get some more amazing pictures. Overall it turned out to be a pretty long day, but it was still a good day, all things considered.<br />
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For the most part, winter has been an amazing time. The last power supply failure we had before this week was a couple months ago, and beyond that, our work has mostly been the occasional calibration run. I have been thinking back some over the past few months, and I remember when I first arrived, and we spent the summer working and preparing for winter. Even then I enjoyed my time here, but since the winter season officially started mid-February with all of the summer people leaving, the station has taken on a much different atmosphere. It almost feels like a totally different place. I had heard from some of the previous winterovers how much better it is in winter, and looking back now, I definitely have to agree. Life is much more laid back now, and our interactions are so much more personal now that we only have 46 people on station. There have obviously been a few small conflicts here and there, but in general, everyone seems to be getting along very well. The people here on station come from all walks of life and political and philosophical backgrounds, but we respect each other and have learned to live together peaceably.<br />
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As for my personal projects, I am making progress, more some days than others. I have been practicing the violin regularly, and there are times I really enjoy it. Other times, it takes a little motivation to get myself to practice, but in the end it seems to be worth it as I feel that I have at least improved some over the past couple months. I have been reading a ton, mostly science papers, and I have also been working on some computer projects. I have been playing around with and reviewing some network security ideas and practices, but I have also spent some time playing around with statistics and some programming languages. In particular, I have been trying to spend some time learning ROOT and Octave, as they have some very powerful tools for statistical analysis. There have also been a few other little computer projects here and there. I am behind on my language studies, but not irreparably so. I haven't spent much time on Duolingo over the past week and half, but I am hoping to jump back into it in the next day or two. I have also been thinking about a few other small projects that I had planned for the winter. I'd like to spend some time studying for my instrument rating, and I would like to spend some time really learning Morse code. As of right now, these are not high priority, but maybe I'll start working on them soon.<br />
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Overall, things are going well. I am still very happy to be here. The past couple of weeks, I have gone outside regularly to watch the auroras and see the stars. It is kind of a surreal experience. I have never lived in a place where you could step out at any time of day and there is a chance you'll see auroras. On that note, my friend and colleague Martin has take some amazing aurora pictures. I am posting some of them below, particularly for those of you who have not seen them already on facebook, but please check out his flickr account (https://www.flickr.com/photos/135762220@N06) for even more!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiga0HkW5vqjky-hsEnjDsJHIZiXv5vLrq59_46g27ndeyIE9VyClm5-iL5TyKsT-l9wlFUn9kCJJnrbhHyGN5x7hM-C70fc_HgGEUv4Ubl0eFLBkGPUQMGSLccW-lClr8PbWRAZA/s1600/moon_and_stars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiga0HkW5vqjky-hsEnjDsJHIZiXv5vLrq59_46g27ndeyIE9VyClm5-iL5TyKsT-l9wlFUn9kCJJnrbhHyGN5x7hM-C70fc_HgGEUv4Ubl0eFLBkGPUQMGSLccW-lClr8PbWRAZA/s400/moon_and_stars.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The moon and stars from the South Pole! - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-evhCdDA5-js/WQgpZVv68kI/AAAAAAAAI8Y/UM1fPklrQi0uSG0Epg35wvzy7Hi6xxk-ACPcB/s1600/_DSC6148.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-evhCdDA5-js/WQgpZVv68kI/AAAAAAAAI8Y/UM1fPklrQi0uSG0Epg35wvzy7Hi6xxk-ACPcB/s400/_DSC6148.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Auroras over the dark sector - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oxJjBSfhUIU/WQgpZTFVXJI/AAAAAAAAI8Y/RrcIuISifNczSm4cycEeThYE7z4ZlBbQwCPcB/s1600/_DSC6205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oxJjBSfhUIU/WQgpZTFVXJI/AAAAAAAAI8Y/RrcIuISifNczSm4cycEeThYE7z4ZlBbQwCPcB/s400/_DSC6205.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martin in front of the station with an aurora in the background - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Czzr4NieDEw/WQgpZcYvv9I/AAAAAAAAI8c/fM9n6eK31UQ9Cbr8mN12rcN4r8Jnxw9nACPcB/s1600/_DSC6233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Czzr4NieDEw/WQgpZcYvv9I/AAAAAAAAI8c/fM9n6eK31UQ9Cbr8mN12rcN4r8Jnxw9nACPcB/s400/_DSC6233.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The IceCube Lab with auroras in the background - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7mVQStW04Q2TpbkuYWVC5pkbBc3pZaz4G7jrRc-ZXqhsFFtgN9FOtQra20D59G_obgDddiOhUGnjYXwszL8ztqJGTo6r2jaURaBG3at7FfVkfzaR-UGPUDyp67SmusTTXJ0s94A/s1600/_DSC6255.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7mVQStW04Q2TpbkuYWVC5pkbBc3pZaz4G7jrRc-ZXqhsFFtgN9FOtQra20D59G_obgDddiOhUGnjYXwszL8ztqJGTo6r2jaURaBG3at7FfVkfzaR-UGPUDyp67SmusTTXJ0s94A/s400/_DSC6255.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aurora and the moon from the station observation deck - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-znCLK1SvzIg/WQgpZV0L1yI/AAAAAAAAI8c/PPii2wd5nYoDtzheBkYTzCBnU1ttOJELwCPcB/s1600/_DSC6341.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-znCLK1SvzIg/WQgpZV0L1yI/AAAAAAAAI8c/PPii2wd5nYoDtzheBkYTzCBnU1ttOJELwCPcB/s400/_DSC6341.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The station with an aurora in the background - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuMkP8dMVpezy6B3m7vro72NVq9lc9sylNdNfB93V3G00SjID-XJ22rjU_L_mhQVFpqfSaOQ140Yw8BMuDjkJjpKQeHu02ua8l-oXK224B6PJIGF9zgghFsPk_nweqhlA35Vd3GQ/s1600/_DSC0677.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuMkP8dMVpezy6B3m7vro72NVq9lc9sylNdNfB93V3G00SjID-XJ22rjU_L_mhQVFpqfSaOQ140Yw8BMuDjkJjpKQeHu02ua8l-oXK224B6PJIGF9zgghFsPk_nweqhlA35Vd3GQ/s400/_DSC0677.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More auroras - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another Shot of the station with auroras - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A coronal aurora from the South Pole! - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHoB3TwYed88sVH85I66YMwy1wLSVKx7H1wK7tehe_6lBk6uxzw9UZFZ9Wxc6BfRaTNtSvtAOkmAhKWtiIa3NoXs5jlQ-irm6ef6fZmHOKAK-2ncj1cEvEbkUNTnk3gwuuu6iPOw/s1600/_DSC6518.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHoB3TwYed88sVH85I66YMwy1wLSVKx7H1wK7tehe_6lBk6uxzw9UZFZ9Wxc6BfRaTNtSvtAOkmAhKWtiIa3NoXs5jlQ-irm6ef6fZmHOKAK-2ncj1cEvEbkUNTnk3gwuuu6iPOw/s400/_DSC6518.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One last shot of the station with auroras - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com3Antarctica-85.1000005 0-90 -41.308594 -59.577965999999989 41.308594tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-32370533819330152222017-04-12T00:13:00.000-07:002017-04-12T00:13:01.275-07:00It's getting dark at the South Pole!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The past couple of weeks at the South Pole have been really great. Our detector (The IceCube Neutrino Observatory) has been fairly stable with only a few small issues that Martin and I have had to deal with. The most "exciting" event happened last week on early Wednesday morning when the wind picked up. It turns out that the wind was blowing some cold air into the ICL (IceCube Lab) and was causing the building temp to drop below our lower limits. Martin and I ended up having to wake up one of the maintenance guys on site to help figure out the problem and get it all fixed again. Thankfully, all we had to do was close a vent and then the temperatures climbed back up to a safe level. Additionally, since we have remote access to the equipment in the building, we didn't even have to walk out in the middle of the night. We did everything on the station which was very nice, especially at 3 or 4 in the morning!<br /><br />Cold temperature warnings aside, our weather here has been all over the place. The temperatures last week got as high as -45F. That is far warmer than I would have expected, considering that I just heard tonight we might hit -90F by this weekend! The funny thing about that is that I am getting used to the colder temperatures here. I actually went out for a few minutes a few nights ago onto one of the decks wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. In fairness, I didn't stay out long, only a minute or two, but it is kinda funny to me that I was even able to get out for that long! As I have mentioned in a previous posts, we had to cover all of the windows on station to prevent light from the station from interfering with some experiments here. If we want to see what it looks like outside, we actually have to go outside. So the other night I went out to see how things were looking. It was actually pretty amazing. I almost got a little giddy, staring up and the first few stars to be visible. I am still so excited to be down here right now as it is getting darker and the long winter night is starting. The sun set here a few weeks ago, but it is still not completely dark. It has gotten dark enough, though, that now we are starting to see more and more stars. In fact, last night I went out and saw the very first aurora of my life! It was very faint and hard to see, but even still it was amazing. I am really looking forward to the days ahead as it gets even darker and there are more stars and aurora visible.<br /><br />Other than that, I have been staying busy as usually with my winter projects. I have been teaching a ham radio class here that seems to be going well, though at times a little slower than I am used to. Normally I would teach this class in roughly 6 hours strait, but I have spread it out over a couple of months down here. If everything works out, and I can get things organized with the ARRL, we should be able to offer the ham radio license exams sometime next month! I have also been doing language studies every day. I finished going back through Spanish on Duolingo, and soon I will be trying to supplement with more external resources. In the mean time I am still practicing French and thinking about adding Russian soon. I have been practicing the violin a few times a week, and I am enjoying that. The only area where I am a little behind is reading, but I have been making progress, just not as much as I would like. Thankfully, I still have some time, and I am confident that it will all work out in the end.<br /><br />I know it probably sounds a little cheesy, and you may be getting tired of me saying it, but I am still so happy to be here right now. I have a great job facilitating scientific research on one of the most amazing astrophysical experiments in the world. I am about to see stars and auroras from an amazing location that few people will ever visit, much less at night. I am living and working with an amazing group of people here, and I am truly enjoying this adventure.<br /><br />As it gets a little darker, I hope to add more pictures, particularly of the stars and auroras. Until then, here are a couple I took the other day. These are probably not the greatest pictures, but hopefully, I can get some more of Martin's amazing photography soon and get those posted.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rghmxzZpcmQ/WO3QqMGBlzI/AAAAAAAAI2U/RjqdWSuZnKIrz9lQzAxc8jsd2L7MzR-cACPcB/s1600/IMG_9905.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rghmxzZpcmQ/WO3QqMGBlzI/AAAAAAAAI2U/RjqdWSuZnKIrz9lQzAxc8jsd2L7MzR-cACPcB/s400/IMG_9905.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The South Pole Telescope (SPT), Bicep, and Keck at dusk.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqWUVO4ysGeYrF10RdFkDChDKsT550VQnvjPuPXoLZbpikhYZre0wkpV9GMbQZysXeuEirB28zJ8qDrhLNlpdZhl2AnWm44IwofCqR7r26Yu7_umSzWqFFFus-NY5KHvs-Rd9Zmw/s1600/DSCN8367.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqWUVO4ysGeYrF10RdFkDChDKsT550VQnvjPuPXoLZbpikhYZre0wkpV9GMbQZysXeuEirB28zJ8qDrhLNlpdZhl2AnWm44IwofCqR7r26Yu7_umSzWqFFFus-NY5KHvs-Rd9Zmw/s400/DSCN8367.JPG" width="400" /> </a></div>
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A zoomed in view of SPT, Bicep, and Keck! </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-28649125541925385502017-03-28T02:03:00.000-07:002017-03-28T03:45:15.767-07:00Sunset at the South Pole<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ICL at sunset - James Casey IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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The past couple of week have had some amazing moments here at the South Pole. The sun has finally set, and it was beautiful. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been very cooperative, and the visibility was low, so we weren't able to see much of the sunset, but thankfully, the weather did clear up enough a few times to get some amazing views as the sun dropped below the horizon. One early morning in particular, the clouds and fog cleared up and we were able to get out and take some great pictures... well, mostly Martin. I am truly impressed with his photography skills, but I did get a couple pictures myself that I really liked. You can see way more of Martin's pictures on his flickr site (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/135762220@N06">https://www.flickr.com/photos/135762220@N06</a>) or in a small album I have created with a handful of his pictures on Google Photos (<a href="https://goo.gl/photos/G2rSrre2hVAQsAtE9">https://goo.gl/photos/G2rSrre2hVAQsAtE9</a>). One thing that I kind of thought that was funny is that we were actually out from 2:30am to 4:30am taking pictures of the sunset. It seemed funny to me to be out at such a time for sunset, but that is one of the unique aspects of being down at the South Pole. Another interesting effect is the famous green flash actually lasts much longer here. Martin also got an amazing shot of that, but unfortunately by time I found out it was happening, the flash had ended.<br />
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As can be expected, we have special celebrations down here for all the major American holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas and such, but we also have a few other special events that we do here. In particular, we actually have a special Sunset Dinner where everyone gathers together and the galley staff goes all out and makes a special meal for everyone. We celebrated our Sunset Dinner this past Sunday evening. It was an amazing meal. We had salad using greens and tomatoes from our small greenhouse. There was bison steak and duck for the main course and a desert of fruit, a truffle, and some creme brulet. Our food is generally pretty good here, albeit not always as fresh as we would like, but during these special dinners, the galley staff goes above and beyond, and they prepare some amazing food. During the event many people on the station volunteer to help set up and clean up during the day so the galley folks can focus on the meal prep. Martin and I and many others volunteered to help out this time. I spent a couple hours helping in the dishpit and setting up tables and such. Martin helped with the table setup and decorations. After the dinner was finished, there was a small gathering where people got together and just hung out for a while. It was a great evening.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The galley for the Sunset Dinner - Martin Wolf IceCub/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oMAFRbMAFDw/WNotmOp8hXI/AAAAAAAAIvg/-GM8PiiED-Uw2QUwkPMhBssLVBLAVc-9wCPcB/s1600/DSC04422.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oMAFRbMAFDw/WNotmOp8hXI/AAAAAAAAIvg/-GM8PiiED-Uw2QUwkPMhBssLVBLAVc-9wCPcB/s400/DSC04422.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The main course for the Sunset Dinner: Bison steak, duck, and fresh greens from the local greenhouse - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pFug-r1BUjc/WNotmFoRq4I/AAAAAAAAIvg/EyCOW-z2ijIRg9VbzdCHqBt9JvM70UGUgCPcB/s1600/DSC04482.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pFug-r1BUjc/WNotmFoRq4I/AAAAAAAAIvg/EyCOW-z2ijIRg9VbzdCHqBt9JvM70UGUgCPcB/s400/DSC04482.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Desert for the Sunset Dinner: Fruit, a truffle, and some creme brulet! - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<br />
On the science side of things, the detector has been running very smoothly. This past week, Martin and I helped with some calibration work that was mostly handled by individuals in the North. On Monday, there was a Dark Sector open house. The Dark Sector is a region off of the station where we try to minimize radio and other electrical noise for the experiments running out there. Martin and I gave a tour of the ICL. Given all the activity on station the past few days, not very many people showed up, but it was still fun. We talked about the detector and the science we do, and then we showed everyone around the lab. Afterwards Martin and I did some winter prep by putting up covers on the windows. During winter we try to limit the light pollution from the station and the experiments around the station for some of the experiments running here that need it dark. This means all the windows on station are covered to block any light from getting out. Only red light is allowed outside, except of course in cases of emergency. This also means that to see the aurora and stars we will have to actually go outside where it is going to be very cold. That should be interesting...<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P_2S-QGwh0U/WNo1m7VnQwI/AAAAAAAAIxY/-A1m_pKE7XA3zfHIrZnwTWFzVYRtPSy3QCPcB/s1600/_DSC4734_web.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P_2S-QGwh0U/WNo1m7VnQwI/AAAAAAAAIxY/-A1m_pKE7XA3zfHIrZnwTWFzVYRtPSy3QCPcB/s400/_DSC4734_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me standing in front of SPT/Bicep and the Keck telescopes on the roof of the ICL around sunset - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<br />
On a more frustrating note, we have been having some issues with our Internet on site. Since we are so isolated from the rest of the world, we rely on satellites to provide Internet and phone communication. For those curious, no we don't have satellite tv, and definitely no normal cell phone coverage. Our primary means of communication is through these satellites. There are four satellite systems we access. One is dedicated to emergency types of communications. The other three provide access to general phone usage and Internet. Unfortunately, even at the best of times, these satellites can be a little slow. Even the fastest is too slow for any serious streaming, and it only lasts for about three hours a day... or it did until it went down a couple weeks ago. Since then, we have only had the other two of our satellite systems working. One of these lasts for about six hours, but is incredibly slow. You can load most web pages and use email, but it can take several minutes to do anything. The last one comes on late at night and lasts for about three hours. It has speeds somewhere in the middle, but with 46 or so people fighting for bandwidth, even it can get really slow at times, not to mention that it comes up late enough that it makes it hard to use it communicate directly with anyone back home as they are all in bed! I will freely admit that this is a bit of a first world problem, but keep in mind this is our only way to communicate in real time with friends and family, and it can be quite frustrating. Hopefully, they will fix the problem soon, which as I understand is actually with the satellite dish in Christchurch, NZ.<br />
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Besides the Internet issues, things are going fairly well. Now that the sun has set, I am waiting for things to get dark here. We have already seen one bright star, but it will still take a few weeks before it gets dark enough to really see the night sky in all its glory. In the mean time, I am trying to keep focused on work and my personal projects and enjoy my time here. While I have had a little problem focusing on the projects lately, I can definitely say that work is going well, and I am very happy here. I have been thinking about my time here and talking with others, and I think by the time winter ends and I head home, I will definitely be ready to go, but I know that I am going to miss this amazing and beautiful place with all the amazing people that I am living and working with over this year here. In the mean time, I am going to enjoy the experience while it lasts!<br />
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Many of the photos below were relatively recently taken by Martin. Several were posted to Facebook, and I am reposting them here for those of you who are not friends of Martin or I on Facebook and haven't seen them yet. He is an amazing photographer!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wQWCsjHwtdI/WNo2Z9mf3TI/AAAAAAAAIxY/WOTsDOjQcoAHGDuNuvv1HRGQunweafN_gCPcB/s1600/_DSC4520.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wQWCsjHwtdI/WNo2Z9mf3TI/AAAAAAAAIxY/WOTsDOjQcoAHGDuNuvv1HRGQunweafN_gCPcB/s400/_DSC4520.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The green flash during sunset at the South Pole - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRHQAM5wTNnpLt7QEdu60XG38M73b84wV9FrXAxSEQJOKVXhgIe0V9d4o8yA2LMC4ELP-7QCpb0tKiNVxXpr-oMjE515yFVcUTs4cWy7iTP4loGVm8PdJYQgRs0evelqAVg-3JZg/s1600/IMG_9832.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRHQAM5wTNnpLt7QEdu60XG38M73b84wV9FrXAxSEQJOKVXhgIe0V9d4o8yA2LMC4ELP-7QCpb0tKiNVxXpr-oMjE515yFVcUTs4cWy7iTP4loGVm8PdJYQgRs0evelqAVg-3JZg/s320/IMG_9832.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset in the Dark Sector from the station - James Casey IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEPpyot0YpMR4g8E4qnJ89XtNhdbLynatf7qRQnrVRrADqbfABzkIg_V6MyzoHrH3jrTsuffA26MMTucll7AWQe7Yi8TA2WzSl6RJSrw9co8sLW8hpcE3_dZCCgmFAkM_r6TncxA/s1600/IMG_9844.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEPpyot0YpMR4g8E4qnJ89XtNhdbLynatf7qRQnrVRrADqbfABzkIg_V6MyzoHrH3jrTsuffA26MMTucll7AWQe7Yi8TA2WzSl6RJSrw9co8sLW8hpcE3_dZCCgmFAkM_r6TncxA/s320/IMG_9844.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another picture of sunset in the Dark Sector from the station - James Casey IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifMo2f9gaLFvIo89DHDu8_ZWxqKNRSvWUk6k0v3B4D2SerYM97e3hkcWJND7VhyphenhyphenMJpi5yTrJYGF7uzUR8qljnWVb_9IeGVg7z8cbgbz5E48Ef7PsZW-72cvrUlmKxunSzDeEBfOg/s1600/IMG_9822.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifMo2f9gaLFvIo89DHDu8_ZWxqKNRSvWUk6k0v3B4D2SerYM97e3hkcWJND7VhyphenhyphenMJpi5yTrJYGF7uzUR8qljnWVb_9IeGVg7z8cbgbz5E48Ef7PsZW-72cvrUlmKxunSzDeEBfOg/s320/IMG_9822.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ceremonial South Pole marker at sunset - James Casey IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhCUGYY22jNw2_rfppPACsCI4R5A3hwNq8UUndbNGql7p6YhVCr4ubXLfyNxb1VYKVlLWbBrVAqA-bxMBq5H18S1Z-VGxkv8YPBHzHwXHkB8FZ9yKPPNchex6BNVHaaT_0FCvj1w/s1600/DSC04006.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhCUGYY22jNw2_rfppPACsCI4R5A3hwNq8UUndbNGql7p6YhVCr4ubXLfyNxb1VYKVlLWbBrVAqA-bxMBq5H18S1Z-VGxkv8YPBHzHwXHkB8FZ9yKPPNchex6BNVHaaT_0FCvj1w/s400/DSC04006.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doug and I walking back during the IceTop Measurements - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L4Mz1p5xbwg/WNoucORE9EI/AAAAAAAAIwA/jKbIWJrlrFYABHrrQgyj6pGwfbBQXnYrwCPcB/s1600/_DSC1975.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L4Mz1p5xbwg/WNoucORE9EI/AAAAAAAAIwA/jKbIWJrlrFYABHrrQgyj6pGwfbBQXnYrwCPcB/s400/_DSC1975.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ICL with the moon above - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCy4S4lQfvLTyE59guv5xr_Zg3goMSq2eUBkaDW9kDcPuIiZZJw0vgtlXFilINcjt1lZjAxU86Zy0AYlALHTrqMBpMFnR7FdRhEYOb9ZQOUaC2rT5Ap_WjeRxMhuKsesVecaQMoQ/s1600/DSC04295.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCy4S4lQfvLTyE59guv5xr_Zg3goMSq2eUBkaDW9kDcPuIiZZJw0vgtlXFilINcjt1lZjAxU86Zy0AYlALHTrqMBpMFnR7FdRhEYOb9ZQOUaC2rT5Ap_WjeRxMhuKsesVecaQMoQ/s400/DSC04295.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The sun behind the South Pole station - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC8RFvrc5T6CqHNzV-nvyKlZoybCR94dwgT8kdJtXJNUTtO7mIUif-2mRPraCLw5gqN6eFpxet9cjyn0W6U1knDE4FBa2ycV9_ebtnzCwRW1pMiJwF0d4q2-A26NtpHHpKx31zsw/s1600/_DSC1999.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC8RFvrc5T6CqHNzV-nvyKlZoybCR94dwgT8kdJtXJNUTtO7mIUif-2mRPraCLw5gqN6eFpxet9cjyn0W6U1knDE4FBa2ycV9_ebtnzCwRW1pMiJwF0d4q2-A26NtpHHpKx31zsw/s400/_DSC1999.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ICL in the fog - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ivhjJMgCUGI/WNo3s3jxZMI/AAAAAAAAIx4/_a7iW7bVutopII1plzpTBHIKNbvbQWCigCPcB/s1600/_DSC2205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ivhjJMgCUGI/WNo3s3jxZMI/AAAAAAAAIx4/_a7iW7bVutopII1plzpTBHIKNbvbQWCigCPcB/s400/_DSC2205.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sastrugi in the sunset - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFtJgrZPCq1U5Wfv0Qx0rMi1PWykDg5WDcougCpfcdMCZhQcFv_x5U2CyoQYrPZdyvUCMqG2mcr3FTML_wEktekwsOjWT10gwBJDT9gBYsw80iETyujeYSp3cmgZFO7GWPHAf_9A/s1600/_DSC2243.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFtJgrZPCq1U5Wfv0Qx0rMi1PWykDg5WDcougCpfcdMCZhQcFv_x5U2CyoQYrPZdyvUCMqG2mcr3FTML_wEktekwsOjWT10gwBJDT9gBYsw80iETyujeYSp3cmgZFO7GWPHAf_9A/s400/_DSC2243.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A winterover walking out during sunset - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DHL7Oyt1-qE/WNo2Zz1AMsI/AAAAAAAAIxY/VOqcHV8-Ya0GlLwVVhSlr2zPFp1wyHZrwCPcB/s1600/_DSC2705.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DHL7Oyt1-qE/WNo2Zz1AMsI/AAAAAAAAIxY/VOqcHV8-Ya0GlLwVVhSlr2zPFp1wyHZrwCPcB/s400/_DSC2705.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another amazing pic of the ICL - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ku4tHFnV2DE/WNo3C-zJGQI/AAAAAAAAIxo/92I9BPfrllwhLpI7XAmg67gSMJVROPpkACPcB/s1600/_DSC2367.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ku4tHFnV2DE/WNo3C-zJGQI/AAAAAAAAIxo/92I9BPfrllwhLpI7XAmg67gSMJVROPpkACPcB/s400/_DSC2367.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ceremonial South Pole during sunset - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tQccFcBAXrw/WNo4cf1-jzI/AAAAAAAAIyE/ubS0bVLSuEAYghdf1GB8pSka-6vgUFbmwCPcB/s1600/_DSC2032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tQccFcBAXrw/WNo4cf1-jzI/AAAAAAAAIyE/ubS0bVLSuEAYghdf1GB8pSka-6vgUFbmwCPcB/s400/_DSC2032.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sastrugi and the ceremonial South Pole marker at sunset - Martin Wolf/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0uNAYqeFoOyvP_IJmV5Xu2pB17_K8or8-SVvgfeszloDdgwUsD78SW3gQoUuT8lBkXvC1WdBHZi2ybJp4v0GHLdYrTzdf8zGxy7ZSWk4MKrExDqnm8p9uFStc0XU_sXgVBkSnVQ/s1600/_DSC2180.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0uNAYqeFoOyvP_IJmV5Xu2pB17_K8or8-SVvgfeszloDdgwUsD78SW3gQoUuT8lBkXvC1WdBHZi2ybJp4v0GHLdYrTzdf8zGxy7ZSWk4MKrExDqnm8p9uFStc0XU_sXgVBkSnVQ/s400/_DSC2180.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset at the South Pole - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KFpji0Ima14/WNo1mx2HGPI/AAAAAAAAIxY/B2rQ0Ycl-qca8gQotDejzL1-HvY0jn0lgCPcB/s1600/_DSC4783_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KFpji0Ima14/WNo1mx2HGPI/AAAAAAAAIxY/B2rQ0Ycl-qca8gQotDejzL1-HvY0jn0lgCPcB/s400/_DSC4783_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sastrugi and the ICL around sunset - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi24opzd8caGQ1yJyROdMEXQSZi3T1TZDuKmP6zbFFN9hCINDOLB26MYodF-iB0hhD944OgPsGCHN7vr7g2oN3UpSjgrQypkMd5wyLUWIfPLGNXzCl8F0Zx4y0kDS8dq8UuICrfbQ/s1600/_DSC1873.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi24opzd8caGQ1yJyROdMEXQSZi3T1TZDuKmP6zbFFN9hCINDOLB26MYodF-iB0hhD944OgPsGCHN7vr7g2oN3UpSjgrQypkMd5wyLUWIfPLGNXzCl8F0Zx4y0kDS8dq8UuICrfbQ/s400/_DSC1873.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The South Pole Telescope (SPT) in the sunset - Martin Wolf IceCube/NSF</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-73904312785246823092017-03-12T00:15:00.001-08:002017-03-12T00:16:41.474-08:00Working outside at the South Pole<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The past couple of weeks have been somewhat active on station, and there will be more updates about some of that activity in the near future, but I wanted to give an update about some work we did last week first. Four times a year, the IceCube winterovers go outside and measure the snow accumulation on the detector. The reason for this is that the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has a surface component called IceTop which is primarily used for cosmic ray studies. IceTop was originally very close to the surface, but over time, snow has built up on the tanks that hold the detector equipment, and in order to better understand the IceTop detector, we have to go out to each pair of tanks and measure the height of the snow build up. There are just over 80 tank pairs. So two days last week, we went out and took IceTop measurements.<br />
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Overall, it isn't too bad a gig, but the problem is that it is getting colder outside now that we are getting closer to winter. This is the second time Martin and I have done it since we got here in November; the first time we did it was in December, when it was much warmer. This time around we actually had a little help from the RAs on site, Doug and Adam. On Wednesday we went out and it was around -60F with a wind chill of -100F. This time around, since there were four of us, we did things a little different. We split up into two groups. Doug and I went out on foot, and Adam and Martin took the LMC (basically think of a very slow snow tractor). Doug and I would do a handful of tanks then meet up with Adam and Martin to warm up in the LMC and then we would split up again. Now, keep in mind, our detector is huge! The entire detector is a cubic kilometer with the detectors being spaced around 125m on the surface which means there was quite a bit of walking between tanks... at temperatures that feel like -100F. Thankfully, on Wednesday, we were able to finish a little over half the detector by lunch. After some discussion, we decided to do the second half of the detector on Thursday morning.<br />
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The weather conditions on Wednesday, our first day out.</div>
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As it turns out, walking around outside for a few hours with a wind chill of nearly -100F really does wear you out... especially if you stayed up too late the night before working on other projects. So, I spent most of the rest of the afternoon napping. I did wake up for dinner for a bit, but after that I was still a little drained, and napped some more. Finally, sometime during the evening, I woke up in time to get some late night Internet'ing in. A little after midnight, things got interesting. A fire alarm went off in one of the external buildings and all the emergency response teams, which is basically everyone on station at this point, jumped into action. Thankfully it turned out to be a false alarm, but it was definitely an exciting end to the day. Thankfully, I was already awake, so it didn't bother me too much, and shortly afterwards I was able to go to bed and get a little more sleep before our next outdoor adventure on Thursday.<br />
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On Thursday, things were a little colder, but there was a little less wind so it didn't feel quite as bad. This time, Doug and I got to ride around in the LMC while Martin and Adam walked from station to station. Trust me when I say that the LMC is much warmer and far more comfortable than walking! However, splitting up the work like we did made the measurements go much faster, of course at the expense of having to walk around in some pretty extreme temperatures! But, honestly, our ECW (extreme cold weather gear) works fairly well. Really, only my hands felt cold while we were out. I really didn't feel that cold otherwise, until we got inside. For some reason being back inside made me realize how cold I was starting to get! Overall, it wasn't that bad. We were able to get out and do some walking in a beautiful and albeit extremely harsh, cold, and isolated part of the world.<br />
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The weather conditions on Thursday, our second day out</div>
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Beyond that, things have been going well. I have spent some time working on my personal winter projects. I have been reading a ton, and I am still working on Spanish and French studies. I have also been practicing the violin. I am not so disciplined that I get to everything I want to every day... hence, the delayed blog post, but overall, I have made some pretty good progress, and I am optimistic about the coming months. The sun is getting closer and closer to the horizon, so in a couple short weeks it should start getting dark here, and I have a feeling that will be an amazing and beautiful experience all its own!<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-80723079272145241472017-02-22T19:39:00.001-08:002017-02-22T19:43:46.546-08:00The Thing at the South Pole!After station close, there is a tradition that we participate in down here at the South Pole. Everyone gathers together and watches the movie "The Thing". I have heard about this tradition for years, so I was very excited to actually be able to participate this time around! In fact, there are three movies called "The Thing", and we watched all of them. It took around six hours, but it was a ton of fun. The original version was made in the 50s, and that one actually takes place at the North Pole. We started with that one and then went on to the 2011 version which is actually a prequel to the 1982 version by John Carpenter, which we finished with. The last two actually take place in Antarctica which is why they have become traditional movies to watch. The one thing I get a huge kick out of is the fact that it is pretty much taken as a given, at least in the new two movies, that Antarctic stations have dynamite and flame throwers... I have been looking around, but I haven't been able to find either, and I don't know what we will do if we get invaded by aliens! <br />
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Since we closed the station last week, we have started to settle into our winter routines. Our station responsibilities have shifted a little bit over the past week. During the summer, everyone has to take turns cleaning their shared bathrooms once a week, and the rest of the station is mostly taken care of by the stewards. Since we have a large population drop during the winter, there is only one steward, so we split all the cleaning responsibilities into different groups around the station. Each week groups shift change responsibilities and we have a different area of the station to clean. We started this new schedule this week, and it hasn't been too bad. I have a great group, including my IceCube colleague Martin and the RAs Doug and Adam. We also take turns now washing dishes, but given the number of people on station, that should only happen once every month and a half or so. I did my first turn in the dishpit this last weekend. It turns out it was a lot more work than I was expecting! I think I am going to try to volunteer some to help out more so it is not so bad for others. It is actually pretty common for people to volunteer in the dishpit, and I think I now see why. If you have more than one person there, it makes things much easier!<br />
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Other than that, things are going well. I got a little behind on some of my winter projects last week due to station close and a few other things we had to do with the detector, but I have been doing well this week. I started some language studies this week: French and a bit of Spanish review on Duolingo. If anyone is interested in learning or refreshing a foreign language, you should friend me on Duolingo so we have that extra level of competition. It will help us keep each other motivated, I think. My username there is Hanavi.<br />
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One area that I am making some good progress in is reading. I have been reading a ton, mostly physics papers and books, but I have an extensive reading list that I am hoping to put a dent in this winter, and I have started on one of the bigger books on the list: War and Peace. I don't read as much as I would like. When I talk to people, I generally find that they have either read way more or way less than I have. I tend to be somewhere in the middle. I also tend to read slowly at times, but that usually isn't an issue as I can be a very patient individual, but War and Peace is a long book. It may take me a while to get through. I have read some long books before, so as long as I don't get bored, this one shouldn't be a problem... We'll see if it keeps my attention!<br />
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I have also started settling into a violin practice routine. I even picked up the trumpet and guitar for a few minutes yesterday. Unfortunately, after about 15 minutes, my lips were so tired and sore, I had to put the trumpet down. Similarly, I don't have calluses on my fingers any more so the guitar playing didn't last as long as I would like, either. I figure if I can do 15-20 min a day for the next couple weeks, I will be in a better place for both, and before too long I will be able to play for an extended period of time again.<br />
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On a bit of a personal note, my sleep schedule has been a little weird. I am a bit of a night person, but that really shouldn't make a difference here, except that I have started to move into a night schedule. I think I would just prefer a longer day, so my schedule keeps moving later and later! Until recently, I have tried to stick with a fairly normal schedule due to meal times, but that has started to slip some. Given the nature of my responsibilities here, I do have some flexibility in my schedule, but I am not quite sure, how far I want to let my schedule flex. Besides meal times, I would like to be awake for the internet which is only up a few hours a day, and I don't want to miss out on some of the social activities. I suppose we'll see how it all works out, so far it hasn't been too bad.<br />
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So far, winter is going well. The sun is still up for a few more weeks, but the temperatures have started to drop. We have seen temps going down to below -50F with windchills below -80F. As long as I can stay productive, I think this will be a great winter!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-61650120373064888162017-02-15T20:10:00.000-08:002017-02-15T20:10:05.715-08:00Closing the South Pole Station for WinterThere are basically two seasons at the South Pole, summer and winter. Summer lasts about three and a half months, and is at least a little bit warmer. The sun stays up 24 hours and doesn't set. The temperature this season reached a high of just under 1F though it was mostly around -20F. During the summer season we have around 150 people on the station at any given time. Most of these people are here to do upgrades and fix problems on the station or with their experiments so that they are ready for the winter. Throughout summer, there are regular flights into and out of Pole. Many people come in or out. Supplies are brought in. There are even some tourists. After the station closes for winter, that all changes. The winter gets much colder. The lowest temperature can go below -100F. Sometime in March, the sun will set over the course of a couple weeks. Then finally in April it will start to get dark giving 24 hours of night.<br /><br />Yesterday was an exciting time for those of us spending the winter here at the South Pole. We closed the station for winter. This means that the last of the summer support people flew out, and there are no more big flights in or out of the station. There will be a couple of smaller planes that will stop here to get fuel on their way across the continent to get home, but even those will stop coming in soon. We are effectively on our own at this point. There are 46 people that will be spending the next eight and a half months living and working together at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It is a very exciting experience for all of us. There have only been around 1,500 people to spend the winter at the South Pole. Interestingly, more people have summitted Everest than have spent the winter here.<br /><br />The closing of the station marks a transition for us. This is the point many of us have been looking forward to for the past several months. It is the beginning of an amazing adventure that few will ever experience. The station is much quieter now. Just about everyone who is wintering knows everyone else. The sun will be setting soon, and it will bring with it one of the most beautiful night skies in one of the most extreme and isolated places in the world. As an astrophysicist this is especially appealing to me. Not only am I working on what I feel is one of the greatest astrophysics experiments in the world, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, I am also going to be able to step outside and see the stars and aurora from a place very few people ever set foot. I have heard that some artists believe science strips away some of the beauty of nature, but in my experience, the opposite is true. When I see the stars, I am reminded of the complex processes that make them work, the vast sizes of the stars and galaxies, and the huge distances between them. To be able to experience that awe and wonder at such a unique place as this... I can't even fathom how amazing it is going to be!<br /><br />There will be difficulties this winter, I am sure. Living with the same 45 other people in such a limited space will almost definitely cause at least some minor conflict, but we have an amazing group this year, and I am confident that we can work through any issues we run into. I think each and every one of us is looking forward to the adventure ahead in their own way and for their own reasons. Now that station has closed, I am looking forward to the next major milestone, sunset.<br />
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The last of the summer crew loading the last Herc of the season! </div>
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The last plane circled and did a fly-by. Several winterovers gathered on the station observation deck to watch!</div>
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The last plane departing, leaving us here alone for the long Antarctic winter!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-27773916968195768722017-02-12T02:02:00.002-08:002017-02-12T02:02:46.117-08:00Particle Astrophysics at the South Pole!One of my hopes in doing this blog is to convey how amazing the science is that is taking place down here at the South Pole. So I would finally like to talk about the scientific experiment I am working on. As I have stated in the past, I am very fortunate to be working here at the South Pole on the IceCube Neutrino Observatory (<a href="http://icecube.wisc.edu/">http://icecube.wisc.edu</a>) . I am also working with another experiment called ARA, which will be discussed in a later post. IceCube is a high energy neutrino observatory, and I am going to give a small description of the detector below along with some of the science we are working on. I am trying to be as understandable but as concise as possible, so please forgive me if things seem a little pedantic at times. Also, I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but what can I say? It is literally particle astrophysics we are talking about here...<br /><br />To understand IceCube, you need a little background in neutrinos. Neutrinos are the lightest (massive) particles we have ever observed. Many people are familiar with atoms. Atoms are the smallest particles that we generally interact with from day-to-day. For a long time, atoms were believed to be the most fundamental particle. Then, around the turn of the twentieth century, we found out that atoms could be broken down even further to protons, neutrons, and electrons. It was then believed that these were the most fundamental particles. After this we began to probe deeper and discovered that protons and neutrons could be broken down even further into particles we call quarks. So far as we now know, these quarks can't be broken down into anything smaller, and similarly, the electron is also a fundamental particle. Many of you may be familiar with the periodic table:<br />
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Particle physicists have a somewhat analogous table:<br />
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<br />This table comprises the most fundamental particles we know about. All of the particles we know about (excluding perhaps dark matter and dark energy) are made up of these fundamental particles. The important thing to know for our purposes is that there is this strange particle called the neutrino which is a fundamental particle related to the electron. In fact, there are a group of these particles called leptons. Three of these leptons are in a sense bigger and carry a charge: the electron, muon, and tau. For each of these particles there is a corresponding neutral particle called a neutrino: the electron neutrino, muon neutrino, and tau neutrino. We say these are the three neutrino flavors. These neutrinos are so "small" that we don't actually know how "small" they are. Where in this case "small" refers to mass. It is actually still an unanswered question in particle physics: What are the masses of the three neutrino flavors? That being said, IceCube studies these neutrinos in order to do all sorts of astrophysics and particle physics.<br /><br />In particular, we look for high energy neutrinos with energies from tens of GeV to over a PeV. This is a huge energy range. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to put this energy in every day terms. The only comparison that seems to make any sense at this level is to compare the energies to those of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The LHC is currently the most energetic man made particle accelerator ever created. These energies are so extreme that there were a few people back when the LHC was about to turn on that were concerned that it could possibly create tiny black holes that would destroy the earth. The energies it was going to operate at were on the order of tens of TeV. For those of you who are totally confused right now, or if you have just forgotten all your prefixes, let me explain: <br />
<br />IceCube observes energies from 10,000,000,000 eV to over 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 eV<br /><br />The LHC observes energies up to around 10,000,000,000,000 eV<br /><br />Notice that the highest energies that the LHC creates fall well within the range of the particles IceCube observers. In fact, one of our highest energy observed particles is estimated to have an energy 1,000 times greater than the energies that are seen in the LHC. I think it is safe to say that the LHC won't be destroying the Earth any time soon! To be clear, our atmosphere is constantly being hit by particles with more energy than the LHC explores, and IceCube is one of a handful of experiments that observes these particles to do physics. In fact, one thing IceCube hopes to do is to find the astrophysical origin of some of these particles. This is one of the interesting things about our detector. It can detect particles with much higher energies than we can explore with any man made particle accelerators. That is not to say that the LHC is not an essential experiment. In reality, it is an amazing experiment doing very important particle physics research. They explore particle interactions in a way that we cannot and are able to do physics that would be impossible with our detector. Similarly, the same can be said about IceCube. Our experiment is complimentary and explores physics regimes that would difficult or even impossible with the LHC.<br /><br />In IceCube we observe these high energy particles to do astrophysics and particle physics. We do everything from study the most energetic and violent astrophysical events involving exploding starts and colliding neutron stars and black holes to fundamental particle physics studying the properties of neutrinos and finally to the most exotic physics involving dark matter and even searches for magnetic monopoles. As it turns out, neutrinos are great for studying the universe! As I said before they are neutral particles, and they also very rarely interact with other particles. They also pass through the universe without interacting with magnetic fields that would otherwise alter their direction. This means that they can pass through the outer layers of stars and give insight into the processes that cannot be seen with normal telescopes. Unfortunately, this also makes them very difficult to detect. In fact, this is one reason we are at the South Pole!<br />
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The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is located between 1.5km and 2.5km in the clearest ice in the world here at the geographic South Pole. Not many people realize this, but at the South Pole we are sitting on almost 3km or over 9,000ft of ice. At the depths of the IceCube detector, the ice is so clear, that it is clearer than any ice that can be made by any person on earth. It is clearer than glass. We have instrumented roughly one cubic km of ice with over 5000 very sensitive light detectors called photo-multiplier tubes. This is over a gigaton of ice that we use! The ice that is in our detector weighs more than all of the people on Earth combined! We need all that ice because the neutrinos are so difficult to detect. In fact, we don't even detect the neutrinos directly. We detect the results of neutrino interactions. For those who have heard of a sonic boom, we see something similar in our detector. Every so often, a neutrino will come through the ice and interact with an ice atom and create a new charged particle. This charged particle will move through the ice faster than the speed of light (in ice) and create a flash of light called Cherenkov radiation. This is just like when a plane moves faster than the speed of sound and creates a sonic boom. Now, I can tell some of you may be concerned because I said the particle was moving faster than the speed of light, and you may have heard that NOTHING moves faster than the speed of light... and you are correct! But that is only true in a VACUUM. In some other media, light slows down! In air or water or ice, light slows down enough that you can have a charged particle move fast enough to move faster than light in that particular medium, and this is the light we detect with IceCube. We detect the Cherenkov radiation generated by charged secondary particles created in neutrino matter interactions in the ice to do particle physics and astrophysics to better understand the universe around us... PHEW!<br /><br />As I said, we can use neutrinos to explore the insides of stars where telescopes cannot see, but we can also use neutrinos to explore more fundamental particle physics. As it turns out neutrinos are weird! Neutrinos can actually change flavor from say an electron neutrino to a muon neutrino or a tau neutrino. While it may not sound like much, this is a very interesting phenomenon to particle physicists and tells us something about how the universe works! IceCube is one of a handful of experiments that can actually measure these "oscillations". There are also questions about dark matter that we are exploring. The interesting thing about dark matter is that there is far more dark matter in the universe than normal matter. There is still so much we don't yet understand about dark matter, and since there is roughly 5 times more dark matter than normal matter in the universe, I personally feel it is a very important and interesting area of research. On top of this there are several other research projects being done using the data collected here at the South Pole using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.<br /><br />So as a bit of a summary, we are doing some very interesting scientific research down here with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. We participate in a diverse array of physics research using the data collected in one of the most isolated and extreme environments in the world located at the geographic South Pole using one of the largest scientific experiments ever constructed in over a gigaton of ice located between 1.5km and 2.5km deep in the clearest ice in the world! I have glossed over a great number of details in this post, but I wanted to at least get an overview of what is going on. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will do my best to answer them!<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-4884857824750715772017-02-09T19:22:00.000-08:002017-02-09T19:22:43.641-08:00More Mail and Getting ready for Winter at the South Pole!Winter is quickly approaching for us here at the South Pole! It is a very exciting time, with many changes starting to take place. The last of the summer IceCube crew left last week, and over the next week and a half, more and more people will be leaving the station and heading home. For those of us who are wintering, we are starting to get a little more excited as well. Though there is still much to be done before we shift into our winter routines.<br /><br />I have had a hard time trying to work on my blog lately. Honestly, I kind of feel bad sitting around in my room while there are still so many people on station. I want to be out hanging out with all the people who are about to leave. Don't get me wrong, I really do enjoy spending time alone working on personal projects, but in a little over a week our population is going to go from around 150 to around 48, and I will be stuck with those same 48 faces for the next 9 months or so. I am really excited for the winter to start, but I am trying to get as much last minute socializing in as I possibly can. It's actually kind of funny. Part of me is ready for all these summer people to leave so we can get our winter started, but part of me knows that I will miss the diversity of individuals on station. That being said, we do have a great winter group, and I am definitely looking forward to hanging out with them more and getting to know them better over the winter.<br /><br />All that aside, since I will be spending the winter here, I have several projects that I want to work on, and I have actually started to make a little progress on some of them. One of them is actually this blog. I am hopeful that I will be able to post more frequently in the days ahead. I am also hoping to be able to read a ton while I am here. I have several books that I have been trying to read for a while, but I haven't had the time or motivation to actually sit down and do it. Part of that was due to school. It is kind of interesting, I think. Now that I am done with school, I actually have time to go back and learn some of the things that we didn't have time to cover very well while I was there, and I am really looking forward to it. I actually picked up my violin for the first time in a while last week. Suffice it to say I need a lot of practice. Other than that, there are a handful of other things I would like to work on, but I think I'll save the details for a future post.<br /><br />I also had an exciting day yesterday, as some mail arrived. This is potential the last mail we will see for the next 9 months. Some of it I had been waiting on, but some of it was kind of unexpected. I received three packages. Two from my aunt Kandy and one from a friend of mine back in Huntsville, Tim. There were tons of great things in all three boxes, and I am very thankful to both of you. One interesting thing in Tim's box was a bunch of letters from some kids back in Huntsville from the Boys and Girls Club there. They ask lots of interesting questions. So over the next couple weeks, I will be putting together a video response and giving a quick tour around the station. I will be sure to post the video for everyone who is interested to see.<br />
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This is a picture of my room with a new camera and fish-eye lens that I am playing with. </div>
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The visibility today is terrible! I don't think we'll have any flights in today.... </div>
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Some more gifts from Tim! Those books will come in handy this winter.</div>
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The Boys and Girls Club in Huntsville, AL sent these letters and questions. I'm putting together a video response... Stay tuned!</div>
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All this came from my Aunt Kandy! Thank you so much, this will help satisfy those mid-winter cravings!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-56908033608248327802017-01-27T22:16:00.001-08:002017-01-27T22:16:12.977-08:00Breaking IceCube and Fixing ARA!The past couple of weeks have been far busier than expected. We had a new group of IceCube and ARA people come in to do work on the detector, and it turns out there was a ton to get done. I recently started working on a more science post about IceCube and ARA, but I haven't had the time to get it cleaned up. I hope I can get it posted in the next few days so that people have a better idea of the work and science being done down here. Until then, I will try my best to explain some of what we were working on.<br />
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ARA is another neutrino detector that is in the process of being constructed down here. It has many connections with IceCube, which means that it is also an experiment that I am also responsible for. The big difference is that it looks for much higher energy particles than IceCube, so it is much more spread out. One of the things I did last week was to pull around 3-5km of fiber optical cable from a couple of the existing ARA stations to the new station sites to be built next season. At first, it was kind of fun getting out and working. The weather was reasonably nice and warm, around -15F to -20F. The sun was shining, and it was an opportunity to hang out with some fun and interesting people. I will admit, though, by the time we were done, I was worn out! We had to unroll this huge cable of wire as it is being pulled behind a forklift. It doesn't sound quite so bad, but the spool was heavy and we had to spin out so the fiber didn't get damaged. The other big problem is that we are at an altitude of almost 10,000ft walking through snow. Thankfully, the snow wasn't too loose and was a least a little packed down. But lets be honest, no matter how used to the cold I seem to have gotten over the past few months here, after spending a few hours at -20F.... I was feeling cold! Actually, it was only my fingers, toes, and face. That being said, I did get an epic ice beard going. That might have made it all worth it!<br />
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In addition to that, we actually got a request to BREAK the IceCube detector!?! Well, not really. In reality we performed a stress test of the new software that was recently installed on site. And how did we do this fun little experiment? Back when the detector was being constructed, several of the sensors were built with LEDs, called flashers, that we use for calibration work. Normally, we can turn on these flashers and use them to get a better idea of how the detector is functioning or even changing over time. In fact we performed over 28 hours of flasher work this season to be used for calibration. This time, however, we used them to crash everything! We started by turning on one set of flashers at a time. After a minute or so, another set of flashers was turned on... then another... and another. Until finally, there were so many flashers running that the detector couldn't keep up with all the data and everything stopped working! The sensors in our detector are so sensitive to light, that just flashing a few hundred LEDs can cause the system to crash. Thankfully, this doesn't do permanent damage to the detector. In fact, the entire plan was to get so many flashers running that the detector was forced to crash to get a better idea of the performance of the detector under some extreme conditions. Overall, it actually turned out to be a bit of fun. Many IceCubers up north got onto the chat and monitoring systems to watch how everything went down. We had a small group in the lab here at the pole, and the only thing missing was the popcorn!<br />
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Overall, things are going well here. Obviously, I am a little behind on posts. I have a few nice blog posts planned for the near future, if I can ever get them all typed up. I am going to give some background on the science here, and I even want to talk about some of the "difficulties" of living at the South Pole. On a little bit of a side note, I have also been playing on the ham radio down here. I am going try to get some information about that in a post here soon as well. It is really fun being able to communicate to the North using nothing be radio waves from the South Pole all way up to the United States! If there is anything else that people are interested in, I am hoping I can try to cover it soon. After the station closes in a few weeks, things should actually really finally slow down here!<br />
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At some point over the past couple of weeks, I actually made it out to another experiment, the South Pole Telescope, for a tour.</div>
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We took turns unrolling the fiber as we walked a few km behind a forklift. It was actually way more work than it looks! </div>
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In the process of pulling cable, I actually developed this epic ice beard! Yay science!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-37679931355142034282017-01-14T22:01:00.001-08:002017-01-14T22:16:32.033-08:00A time of transition at the South PoleThe past week and half or so has been a bit of a time of transition. Some of that is more internal, while much of it has been external. Internally, I feel myself getting more excited about the coming winter. In particular, there have been a few times when I have been traveling between the station and the IceCube Lab where I work, and I will look around and see the vast snowy landscape and get so excited about the sunset. Keep in mind that it is currently summer here, and the sun doesn't set in the summer. But at the beginning of winter, there will be a long sunset. It will actually last one to two weeks. I can't even fathom how amazing that will be... over a week long sunset in one of the most remote locations in the world. Previous winterovers have talked to me about how they start to get ready for everyone to leave so they can get on with the winter. Just as a reminder, there will be 40 to 50 of us here, alone, throughout the winter. I am not quite to the point where I want to kick all the summer people off the station and get on with the winter, but I can definitely see some of the appeal of it at this point.<br />
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Externally, there have been many changes as well. While I have gotten somewhat used to the temperatures down here, it is starting to get a little chillier. Today, it is -15F (-26C) with a windchill of -44F (-42C). It is also a very windy day. I have noticed that at -15F or so, I can get around outside with only a sweat shirt if there is no wind. If the wind kicks in, I definitely need a few extra layers. Additionally, we have had some personnel changes. My supervisor, Ralf, left a few days go. Martin my colleague who will be wintering with me, has been gone for the past week on R&R. This leaves me alone watching the detector. Things haven't been bad so far. There are a bunch of small things that have to be done, though. I have had to do some routine work on our data archival system. There was some work on the ARA experiment that I helped out on. Next week, I have to do some calibration and test runs, but hopefully Martin will be back for most of that. Additionally, we have had a bunch of new people on station to help out with IceCube and ARA. I have been helping them get acclimated and get their projects started.<br />
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The last big thing we had this week was an open house out at the ICL (IceCube Lab). We invited the members of the station to come out and hear about the science we do and to tour our facilities. I really had a great time doing it. I love science outreach, and I really enjoy talking about all the amazing science that IceCube is doing down here at the South Pole. We are exploring the universe in a new way. Just like Galileo first looked up to the heavens with the first telescope a few centuries ago, we are looking into the universe in a way that has never been done before. We are trying to understand the most energetic astrophysical events ever seen by searching for the tiniest of particles we have ever detected. Just like Galileo had no idea where his discoveries would lead, we are likewise just at the beginning of new form of exploration with no idea where our work will take us. It is an exhilarating time and I am so thrilled to be one small part of it here down at the South Pole.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-34936735343863465612017-01-02T23:39:00.003-08:002017-01-02T23:39:44.247-08:00A New Year At The South Pole!Happy New Year! The past week has been very busy and interesting. Unlike Christmas, we actually had to work over the New Years weekend. On most holidays, we are generally not very busy, but over the New Year, we have to update hardware in the detector to take account of the leap second. That's right. I am sure many of you have heard of the leap seconds added at the end of some years and wondered why we actually have it and who really cares. Well, as it turns out, we care! This shouldn't be a problem, but the GPS clocks we use have a bug in the firmware that causes extra leap seconds to be added at the wrong time. Our responsibility is then to reset the clocks so they are running with the correct time. The up side to all of this is that it all happens at midnight UTC, which is about 1pm NZDT which is the time we use here on the station. That being said, we started the correction work a day early. In the process of discussing the plans, it was suggested that we fix some of our backup power on one of our clocks, which required re-cabling things and moving a UPS around. No problem, just flip off the system, and move the UPS and re-cable. Easy. Except... someone had already tried to re-cable things, but the wrong way. When we pulled the plug, it was to the wrong system. Long story short, we ended up taking the detector down for a couple hours while we waited for the GPS clocks to re-sync themselves. So we spent our New Years Eve afternoon moving around hardware and re-cabling and trying to get the detector back up and running. After that, though, things calmed down quite a bit. We even had a New Years Eve party in our gym! As bad as it was trying to deal with the GPS clocks, it was still pretty awesome to celebrate the new year at the South Pole... Though I am pretty sure they didn't take the leap second into account during the countdown at midnight! On New Years Day, things went much smoother. The final leap second procedure didn't give us a problem, and everything kept running just like we hoped.<br /><br />On the evening on New Years Day, we had a special ceremony where the geographical South Pole marker was updated. There are actually two South Pole markers here. One is ceremonial, which is used more for ceremonies and some fun pictures. The other actually marks where the current location of the geographic South Pole is. Because we are on a big sheet of ice that is moving, albeit slowly at 10 meters a year, every year the marker is relocated to reflect the new location of the South Pole relative to the station. The marker is relocated during a small ceremony on January 1st. A ton of people came out to watch and even participate. The new marker was designed by last years winterovers and built here on station. Ever year there is a competition for the next design, and we as winterovers can submit designs for the next marker. After the wining design is chosen, the marker is made and then concealed until it takes it's place for the next year. During the ceremony they touched the new marker, still covered, to the old one and then passed the marker around for everyone to hold until it reached the new marker location at the very bottom of the earth. It was a simple ceremony, but lots of fun.<br /><br />The other interesting thing going on right now is with our airplanes. We are very isolated here. Almost everything we have here comes in by airplane. Specifically, there are large Herc's flown by the New York Air Guard. The problem is that they are way behind on flights. Right now, we have had roughly 29 flights or so. The number of flights we should have had is around double that. It isn't a huge deal, except they are supposed to be bringing in fuel to keep us supplied throughout the winter. We also haven't really received much mail in about 2 or 3 weeks, and I am really looking forward to getting some of the things I have ordered online for the winter. It also makes it difficult for Martin, my IceCube winterover colleague, to take his R&R week off in McMurdo. (I opted out of R&R because it is too much of a hassle to deal with McMurdo. Though, he is optimistic that he will see penguins, and I think that would make it worth it to some degree. ) The funny thing is that because we are so behind on flights, they scheduled 19 for this week... That's right, we have had 29 in the past two months, and they said they would have 19 this week alone! So, you may think, "wow, you guys are going to be so busy with all of those flights!" Well, it is now Tuesday evening, and of those 19 flights we have a received a grand total of.... wait for it.... ZERO. We have also been told that there will be no flights tomorrow because the planes are all stuck in New Zealand due to weather. I guess when they scheduled the 19 flights, they didn't think the planes would actually have to be on the same continent to fly them. It is also surprising how many times the planes seem to have mechanical problems on days when there is a big football game going on... I'm sure that is just a coincidence, though.<br /><br />All that being said, I can't really complain that much. I am still really enjoying my time here. Things were slow today so I went and tried to play my trumpet. It turns out that I am going to have to spend some time working on easy stuff until my embouchure is built up enough again to do anything really complex. That is what I get for not playing much over the past few years! I am also hoping to get on the violin soon. I have all these hobbies that I am super excited about being able to get back into over the next year. Everything from music to books to electronics and even to some physics I want to study. Now that things are slowing down here, I am really looking forward to getting started!<br />
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New Years Eve party at the South Pole!</div>
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Wayne, our winter site manager, is getting ready to place the new South Pole marker.</div>
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Everyone worked together to move the flag and the sign for the marker. This amazing pic was taken by Martin who happens to be a far better photographer than I am!</div>
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The marker was passed from person to person starting at the old marker and ending at the very bottom of the world at the geographic South Pole! This was also taken by Martin.</div>
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Two other Georgia Tech Alumns (Nicole and Adam) and I pose at the geographic South Pole in front of the new South Pole marker.</div>
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Adam, Nicole, and I also got a pic in front of the ceremonial South Pole!</div>
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Here is Martin wishing everyone a happy New Year from the geographic South Pole!</div>
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The is a close up of the marker. This was also taken by Martin!</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03119858488905799868noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8885074.post-22487569725470560472016-12-27T00:13:00.001-08:002016-12-27T00:13:03.367-08:00Christmas at the SOUTH Pole!I feel very fortunate that I was able to celebrate Christmas at the South Pole this year. A Spanish reporter contacted me recently asking about what it was like to be a scientist who has to work during the holidays. For those who speak Spanish the link to the article is <a href="http://www.agenciasinc.es/Reportajes/Cientificos-de-guardia-por-Navidad">http://www.agenciasinc.es/Reportajes/Cientificos-de-guardia-por-Navidad</a>. Thankfully, we didn't have any problems with the detector over Christmas so it was actually really nice here, and there wasn't much work to be done.<br />
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Normally we work 6 days a week, more or less, except on holidays where we get an extra day off. As a scientist, my schedule is a little more flexible. Some days, I only have a few hours of work here and there. Other days I may be up very early or very late fixing problems. Last week we actually had a couple of issues. One of our servers died at 3:30 in the morning. For some of our servers this is not a big deal, and we can take care of it the next day. Unfortunately, this one was a DOMHub which means it is really important, and we had to deal with it immediately. My colleague Martin was on call, so he went out to the ICL (IceCube Lab) to fix it, while I monitored things from station. It turns out things were a little worse than we suspected so I ended up heading out as well to help him get things running again. After a few hours we got it all taken care of, and then came back for breakfast followed by a short nap before getting started on the rest of our TODO list for the day. Then, two days later, there was another failure, this time around 7 in the morning. This time I had to get up and head out to fix the problem. This involves getting all dressed up in cold weather gear and either walking or thankfully in the summer riding out on snowmobile. It was a quicker fix this time, and thankfully the last of our problems for a while.<br />
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The Thursday before Christmas we had another exciting task. A few times a year, we have to go out and measure the snow accumulation on parts of the detector. This is roughly 80 pairs of tanks, each of which gets measures spread out over a square kilometer. We were able to use one of the Piston Bullies (pictured below) to drive around to the tanks. This gave us a few minutes of warmth between measurements. Overall, this took us about a day of work. Fortunately, we had a little help from a summer IceCube visitor, Gwen.<br />
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Finally, on Christmas eve we had a ton of things going on here on station. The first big thing is the station Christmas dinner. We had beef Wellington and stuff lobster tails with all sorts of European deserts. After this there was a big Christmas party with a live band dancing and socializing. Sadly, in setting up for the party, I smashed my thumb between a couch and a door, and now my thumbnail is still blue! Ah, how difficult life is here at the South Pole!<br />
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Overall the past couple of weeks have been really good. I do miss my family here. I don't get to talk to them much due to limited satellite access and different time zones, but as I think I have said in the past, I am very fortunate to be able to work with such a great group of people here at the South Pole and in the IceCube collaboration. I feel like the work I am doing is very rewarding. I am excited about the science that IceCube and the IceCube collaboration are doing. On top of that, every so often I stop and think, "Holy crap, I am at the South Pole!" I am looking forward to continuing this work for the next year and seeing what the Antarctic Winter holds for us! I hope you enjoy some of the pictures below. <br />
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I finally made it out to the Ham radio rig at the South Pole. Usually you access it remotely from the station, but it is nice to know where the actual hardware is in case I have to fix something.</div>
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Our trusty Piston Bully!</div>
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Martin and Gwen measuring snow buildup on the IceTop Tanks.</div>
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We found this makeshift Christmas tree out near the materials area of the station on the way back from measuring snow. It is mostly made of cargo straps!</div>
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Our station doctor poses with our party coordinator. They are really getting into the Christmas spirit.</div>
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I brought a bunch of the Christmas cards I received from the students at Whitesburg Christian Academy to our party, and some of the people really appreciated reading them!</div>
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What Christmas would be complete without cheesy Christmas movies?</div>
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Everyone gathered on Christmas Eve for an amazing dinner!</div>
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Desserts!</div>
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Martin and I even got presents from the IceCube back in Madison, WI. Thanks everyone!</div>
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We wrapped the evening up with a party in the gym. It was a great Christmas!</div>
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