On deck, the buoy looks pretty impressive but once deployed into the ocean buoy Carmen looks quite tiny. She was named after one of the three PhD students working in the NIOZ-MARUM 'dust team' (next to Michelle and Laura) and since 2013 (10th anniversary this year!) she has been collecting meteorological data and Saharan dust. The buoy is equipped with a 'dry dust collector', pumping air over a set of filters as well as a 'wet dust collector', collecting rainwater in a set of bottles. These unique open-ocean data will give us an idea about the amounts of dust that are deposited into the eastern subtropical North Atlantic Ocean.