A time of transition at the South Pole

The 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.

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.

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.

Christmas 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 http://www.agenciasinc.es/Reportajes/Cientificos-de-guardia-por-Navidad. 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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

 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.

 Our trusty Piston Bully!

Martin and Gwen measuring snow buildup on the IceTop Tanks.

 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!

 Our station doctor poses with our party coordinator.  They are really getting into the Christmas spirit.

 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!

 What Christmas would be complete without cheesy Christmas movies?

 Everyone gathered on Christmas Eve for an amazing dinner!

 Desserts!

 Martin and I even got presents from the IceCube back in Madison, WI.  Thanks everyone!

We wrapped the evening up with a party in the gym.  It was a great Christmas!

Our first live outreach and another care package at the South Pole!

The past couple of weeks have kept us pretty busy.  Since we got our cargo in, we have been working to do upgrades on hardware and software in the IceCube Lab (ICL). Mostly things have gone very smoothly, but occasionally, something in the upgrade process hasn't gone as planned and we have had to spend a few hours troubleshooting.  We also had to carry what I have been informed was a literal ton of batteries upstairs in the lab.  I would like to characterize this as routine (or I suppose not in the case of the batteries), but that seems to be the exact wrong word to use.  Every day is different here, at least during the summer.  Additionally, We have had more people shifting in and out of the station. While I look forward to the new faces coming in, I am definitely sad to see some of the old faces leave.  Sometime in the next few days, we will be losing a couple people in the IceCube summer crew, but later in the week, we should be getting a couple new people in to work on different projects. It is somewhat bittersweet.

There were a couple of more interesting things that happened over the past couple weeks, as well.  Last week we did an outreach over the Internet with a couple of schools up north: Avery Elementary 3rd-5th grade in St. Louis and Preeceville School 9th-12th grade in Canada.  Martin (my winterover colleague), Jim and Chris (IceCube summer crew), and I all sat down at about 6am and gave a small presentation about our experiment and life at the South Pole.  We got some excellent questions.  I actually love telling people about the work I am involved in and in general astrophysics.  The problem I ran into with this outreach is that I had to try to explain it to very young students.  Normally, when I try to explain particle astrophysics, I am talking to adults, albeit with a limited science background, but I think this is the first time I have tried to explain it to 3rd graders.  Overall, I think it went well.  Mostly, for the younger group we focused on life at the South Pole with some science thrown in for good measure. Several of the questions that were asked were very good, especially for the ages asking involved. I look forward to our next outreach opportunity.

Another very exciting thing happened last week as well. I received a care package from a friend of mine, Tim and some students from Whitesburg Christian Academy back in Huntsville, Alabama.  It had some wonderful things in it, including some snacks (yay beef jerky!) and some other things that are very nice to have.  I have to say, though, my favorite items in the care package were all the Christmas cards!  The cards and envelopes were all decorated and each had a little message inside.  I have a couple of favorites that I am posting below.  I am very grateful for all the thoughts and effort put into the cards and care package.  It is nice to know that people back home are still thinking about me!  Everyone has been so busy here, we haven't done much decorating just yet. I am going to share the cards with some of the other people around station to help spread some Christmas cheer.

Overall, we have had a good couple of weeks, and I am looking forward to the weeks ahead.  Hopefully, after Christmas, things will slow down a little bit, and I will be able to blog more about the science we are doing here at the South Pole!

 A care package I received from Tim and some students at Whitesburg Christian Academy in Huntsville, AL!

I selected two of my favorite cards, though they were all great!  I am going to share the rest with the other people on station to help spread a little Christmas cheer.

These were the same batteries we had to let dry out after they got soaked in transit.  We had to carry them all up stairs after testing.  I was told they weight over a litteral ton!

We did a quick picture up in the control room outside the server room.  I never thought as an astrophysicist I would get to wear a lab coat to work, but I now I do!  These jackets help minimize electrostatic discharge, so they are a must in the very dry air down here when working on the servers.  (left: Martin, center: Ralf, right: ME! )

Moving Forward

The past few weeks have been very... interesting. I have started a new phase in my life, and I have been working to adapt to it. For the time being, I am not going to go into details, most of which would be boring anyway, but suffice to say I am looking forward to what the future holds.

That being said, I am happy to say that I have been working on and off on a new math/physics post that I would really like to get up soon.  I still need to sit down and clean it up a bit, though.  As of right now, I don't think I have very many (if any) regular readers, which is fine for now, but I don't want to put something out there that is way to complicated for any random visitors, and I could use the experience to work on my scientific communication skills.

That leads me to an interesting point. The purpose of this blog is more personal with the hopes that one day it may grow to a form of outreach to inspire others in math and physics.  It also serves as an outlet for me to get some simple and at times more complicated writing done.  I was fortunate a few years ago to meet with Neil deGrasse Tyson when he spoke at Georgia Tech.  I asked him what he wanted those of us who were future scientists to know about communicating with the public.  His response was very enlightening and educational.  One major point that he made was about writing.  He said that before he speaks with a group of people he has probably written everything he is going to say several times over beforehand in one form or another.  The idea being that the more time you spend writing about science, the easier it will be able to talk about science. That is one reason I started this blog.  It was a way to force myself to write more so I could improve my communication skills with those people around me, in particular with respect to science. I have learned over the years how important it is for us as scientists and science enthusiasts to communicate with those who have less exposure to science. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I would tell people I was studying astrophysics and they would ask why it was important.  They were generally curious as to why we would care at all about exploding stars and other more obscure research that has little if any impact on our day to day lives.  I think this an indication that we as scientists have not done a very good job at expressing the importance of our research to the general public.  Most of us are content to stick to our academic circles and conferences and do as little outreach as required, but I am hopeful that we will begin to find new ways to reach out and teach and inspire those around us with the work we are doing.  Most people who go into science don't do it for the paycheck, but because they truly want to explore the universe and make the world a better place.  I think that point has been lost, especially in the past few years in regards to climate change.  I believe that we can work to make the world a better place by reaching out and sharing who we are and why we do what we do.  Hopefully, this blog will serve as a means to that end for not only myself, but others as well.

Multi-messenger Astronomy

Recently, I was invited to give a talk at the Von Braun Astronomical Society. It was a wonderful experience. I am very passionate about science and astrophysics, and I am always excited to be able to share that passion with others in the community. In all honesty, when I was younger, I didn't appreciate those like Neil deGrasse Tyson and other "pop-physicists" who were so focused on scientific outreach. Over the years, however, I realized that what they do is so important. Given that there are so many people who are so ignorant about science, I think it is extremely important for us as scientists to try to reach out and share what we do and how science works with the people around us.

That being said, my talk was about multi-messenger astronomy. The key point was that we are living in a very exciting time with regard to astronomical exploration. Man has been fascinated with the stars since the dawn of time. Then in the late 1500's, Galileo came along and pointed this new invention, the telescope, up toward the heavens, and he revolutionized science. I had a professor as an undergrad who said that the telescope was mankind's greatest invention, and I believe that there may be some truth in that. Since that time, we have used the whole of the electromagnetic spectrum from the very low energy energy cosmic microwave background radiation left over from the big bang all the way to the very energetic light of gamma rays from exploding stars to explore the universe. We have discovered so much about the universe since that time, and I am sure Galileo could not have even imagined some of the things we have found, from galaxies and black holes to dark matter and dark energy. Now, in the past few years, we have started to build new types of telescopes. We have begun to explore gravitational waves with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO). On top of that we have started to look for the tiniest of particles called neutrinos from the cosmos in experiments such as the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.

These two new observatories, LIGO and IceCube, are looking into the heavens for the first time, just like when Galileo first pointed his telescope up into the sky. And just like Galileo, we have no idea what we will find. We are living in a very exciting time for the exploration of the universe and I look forward to our next steps!