At present, there is an ICBM crew aboard German RV Poseidon. Last Thursday, the scientists launched six converted life rafts for experiments into the Balearic Sea. Prior to that the rafts had been deprived of their bottom floor foils and every two of them were covered with different foils as a top cover: lightproof, UV-impermeable and fully permeable to light.

These mini worlds, known to life sciences as mesocosms, enable the researchers to take undisturbed samples from the sea surface in order to investigate the influence of light in general and of uv-radiation in particular on life processes at the sea-atmosphere boundary.

First samples have been taken last Friday. Read more under the RV Poseidon cruise blog [German only]