S07 → N400

The Spike of Fascinating & Unexpected





SPIKE 44
→ BUOY.



© 1. Mark Doliner — Sea lions and gull on a buoy in Monterey Bay, California / 2. NOAA / 3. MSM Ocean / 4. & 5. Dorset Marine Training / 6. Almarin — G3000TW Guide Buoys / 7. Almarin — G2400T Guide Buoys / 8. PT Kemenangan — PE Buoy Merah Putih, Jakarta, Indonesia / 9. Richard Madden / 10. Almarin / 11. nke Instrumentation / 12. Graham Curran — National Data Buoy Centre weather buoy Station 13010. 

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A buoy is a floating object anchored in bodies of water, serving various navigational, safety, and environmental monitoring purposes. Navigational buoys mark channels, hazards, and other features in waterways, helping ships, boats, and vessels navigate safely. These buoys are often equipped with lights, reflectors, and other signalling devices to enhance visibility, especially at night or in adverse weather conditions. Environmental buoys, in turn, are used to monitor water quality, weather conditions, and marine ecosystems. Equipped with sensors and instruments, these buoys collect data on parameters such as temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, and currents, providing valuable information for research, conservation, and resource management efforts.

Interestingly, another type of buoy, wave buoys, also known as wave rider buoys or wave monitoring buoys, are oceanographic instruments designed to measure various parameters of ocean waves. These are typically deployed in coastal waters, offshore regions, and sometimes in open ocean environments to collect data on wave conditions. They are designed to bob up and down with the motion of the ocean, but they also have a secondary purpose: to measure the height, period, and direction of waves. Marine life, such as seals or dolphins, might mistake a wave buoy for a resting spot or a plaything. Researchers have found instances where curious marine animals have been captured on camera interacting with wave buoys, sometimes even hitching a ride on top of them. Amusingly, they sometimes get mistaken for treasure buoys. Indeed, historically, pirates and treasure hunters would use buoys to mark the location of a sunken treasure or hidden caches of loot. Nowadays, with advanced technology and GPS navigation, the practice is less common, but there are still stories of people stumbling upon wave buoys and mistakenly thinking they've found something valuable.

The point on the Earth’s surface defined as Null Island, that is the location at zero degrees latitude and zero degrees longitude (0°N 0°E), where the prime meridian and the equator intersect is located in international waters in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 600 kilometres (370 miles) off the coast of West Africa. Here, a weather buoy, named the Soul Buoy or station 13010, is permanently moored at the location to collect oceanographic and meteorological data for the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Atlantic (PIRATA) program.




→  Sourced from: SYSTEM 03 (Specteore)
→  Stored online: N400 Spikes Repository



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