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How GPS Is Killing Lighthouses

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the like-lightbulbs-killed-candles dept.

sakshale writes "Spiegel Online has an article about the impact of GPS systems on Lighthouses. They claim that the popularity of the satellite-based global positioning system has led to the closure of lighthouses along the German coast." As the article says, "critics question whether the new system is reliable and safe enough to warrant the closure of these historical beacons of safety."

10 of 509 comments (clear)

  1. Run by US Gov't? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Isn't GPS run by the United States government? Are other countries sure it's a good idea to be relying on that?

  2. Old news by IBeatUpNerds · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lighthouses have been obsolete since radar came to be. GPS is hardly the starting point for this. At any rate, I'm a fan of lighthouse preservation efforts as I think they're a very interesting part of our evolution of navagational technology, and, in some cases, quite beautiful. Lighthouses have been pretty well obsolete for 40 years.

    1. Re:Old news by SimonInOz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You've never sailed a small boat, have you? Lighthouses are wonderful. There is nothing so bad as your vessel being beaten against a rocky shore ... except, perhaps, not being sure what continent that rocky shore belongs to ...

      --
      "Cats like plain crisps"
    2. Re:Old news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Seeing the shoreline is not the problem. Knowing exactly where you are is, at least in bad weather, and then you don't know if you're near or in shallow water (no sonar/radar in small boats). Lighthouses mark dangerous points and can be seen even in heavy storms, when the unilluminated coastline blurs until you practically hit it.

      There have been GPS outages which resulted in hours of whacky readings (thousands of miles off). Lighthouses can fail too, but they're another layer of security.

    3. Re:Old news by hachete · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I grant you that radar and GPS have de-emphasised certain parts of navigation and booted out sextants and other radio-based systems like RDF, Loran altogether. Sextant sightings are now treated as an emergency measure, visual sightings by compass are still very useful. Lighthouses play an important role in the navigation environment.

      Radar - good for night navigation and bad weather - only gives you a partial picture and sometimes a less than accurate one - the plan - and sometimes that can be misleading. Nothing better than a lighthouse to truly *fix* your position because it encodes it's identity into light. By the same token, that's why ships still have navigation lights.

      A 3-point fix using compass bearings off of lighthouses and buoys is still the best way to fix your positions. Radar bearings are nowhere near as accurate, and far more prone to the "cocked-hat" problem. The same with Loran.

      At anchor, taking compass bearings off of well-known points is still the best way to see if you're dragging anchor.

      --
      Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
  3. Why take them out? by chrispyman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Although the lighthouses really aren't needed, do they really cost so much for upkeep to where it's not cost effective to keep the system running as a backup? I would imagine that it would be very nice to still have lighthouses should a ship suddenly find its GPS no longer working.

  4. Lighthouses are still valuable... by aquarian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...as tourist attractions. In fact the actual light and other equipment has been automated for years. Many navigational beacons are solar powered, and almost maintenance free.

  5. Question FTA by riptide_dot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    FTA: "For one thing, GPS can never be 100 percent reliable -- extreme weather conditions like hail or snowfall or even solar winds are known to disrupt service."

    I'm just wondering - couldn't those same factors affect a captain's visibility to a lighthouse?

    I don't think that all lighthouses are in immediate danger of closure. This from the The National Lighthouse museum:

    "With all of the advances made in electronic navigation over the last half century, the use of lighthouses as aids to navigation has certainly waned. The Global Positioning System (GPS), in particular, has transformed the art of navigation to electronic methods. Lighthouses are still used by ships as a back up to their satellite navigation aids, however, and they are used by small boats that aren't equipped with the necessary navigational electronics. Some lighthouses, which are used as range lights are still as important today as they ever were."

    The Staten Island Lighthouse, for example, is the rear range light for the Ambrose Channel Range, the primary deep-draft channel into New York Harbor, and remains of vital importance to New York marine traffic."

    Here's an ironic twist too: Using a GPS to find a lighthouse.

    And: The GPS coordinates of many lighthouses.

    --
    I was in the park the other day wondering why frisbees get bigger and bigger the closer they get - and then it hit me.
  6. Re:The Lighthouse Joke by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Lighthouses have a number of uses. Manned lighthouses provide local emergency services. If your boat sinks, a lighthouse will indicate the general direction of the shore (very useful when your GPS is 50 feet underwater). Also, of course, useful when your GPS has died all of a sudden.

    This reminds me of the parable:

    Acolyte: Father, what is the difference between knowledge and faith?
    Priest: Knowledge is like the Sun. Faith is like a candle.
    Acolyte: But I thought that faith was more important than knowledge. How can that be, the Sun is far brighter than any candle!
    Priest: Come back and ask me again at midnight.
    --
    Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
  7. Re:WTF = Where TF?! by jagapen · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Smart people have backups.
    And those backups are called lighthouses.