Soul Buoy

The Soul buoy (or Station 13010[1]) is a buoy in the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA) programme, which collects meteorological and oceanographic data. It is located in the Gulf of Guinea, at the intersection of the Greenwich meridian and the Equator.[2]

National Data Buoy Centre weather buoy Station 13010 - Soul, at 0 deg latitude, 0 deg longitude. Maintained by the PIRATA (Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Atlantic) project.

Characteristics

The buoy is part of the PIRATA network, a set of 17 buoys installed in the tropical Atlantic Ocean from 1997. Like the other buoys in the programme, it is named after a musical genre, soul music.[3] It is an ATLAS (Autonomous Temperature Line Acquisition System) buoy, autonomous, conical-shaped and 3.8 m high. It is anchored by a cable to the seabed, which at this point is around 4,940 metres (16,210 ft) deep.[4] It measures the following data:

  • Wind speed and direction
  • Air temperature
  • Precipitation
  • Humidity
  • Solar radiation
  • Pressure, temperature & conductivity up to 500 m below the surface.

Less than a year after its installation in 1997, the Soul buoy disappeared, requiring replacement in 1998.[3] Buoys like this attract schools of fish and make it a favourite fishing spot, sometimes leading to acts of vandalism. PIRATA buoys are therefore inspected annually.[5]

See also

References
  1. "Station 13010 - Soul". www.ndbc.noaa.gov. National Data Buoy Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
  2. "0° 0°". confluence.org. Degree Confluence Project.
  3. Huet, Sylvestre (1 December 1998). "Après le Pacifique, l'Atlantique équipé de bouées de surveillance". Libération (in French).
  4. "Bathymetric Data Viewer". National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  5. "PIRATA Cruises". www.brest.ird.fr. PIRATA France.
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