RV Sonne, Germany

The RV Sonne is a German deep ocean research vessel. It has a StirLITE liquid nitrogen system on board to supply LN₂ for the researchers.

The ship will operate mainly in the Pacific and the Indian Oceans She is registered in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. RV Sonne is in service since 2014 and replaces the predecessor of the same name. The ship was financed by the German federal Ministry for Education and Research (90%) together with the costal states Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Bremen and Hamburg (10%) in May 2011.

The construction took place in Meyer Werft in Papenburg and the Sonne left the dock in April 2014. It was christened in July 2014 and handed over in November 2014.

The Sonne is a multipurpose working platform for marine and related disciplines: physical and biological oceanography, marine geology, marine and atmospheric chemistry, marine geophysics and meteorology.

On board a StirLITE liquid nitrogen has been installed to supply LN₂ to the researchers. On previous vessels, LN₂ was taken on board in (large) dewars. however this required a lot of space, had limited storage time and was difficult to refill while sailing. With a stand-alone LN₂ system, the ship is fully self sufficient and independent.