Buoy

"Buoys" redirects here. For the band, see The Buoys.

A sea lion on navigational buoy #14 in San Diego Harbor.

Green can #11 near the mouth of the Saugatuck River.

File:NOAA weather buoy.jpg

NOAA weather buoy

A buoy is a floating device that can have many different purposes, which determine whether the buoy is anchored (stationary) or allowed to drift. The word, ultimately of French origin, is nowadays most commonly Template:PronEng (identical with boy, a male youth), although orthoepists have traditionally prescribed the pronunciation /bwɔɪ/. The pronunciation /buɪ/ (one syllable) or /ˈbu.i/ (two syllables), while chiefly American, more closely resembles the modern French bouée /bu.e/.

Types

• Sea mark - aids pilotage by marking a maritime channel, hazard and administrative area to allow boats and ships to navigate safely.
• Lifebuoy - used as a life saving buoy designed to be thrown to a person in the water to provide buoyancy. Usually has a connecting line allowing the casualty to be pulled to the rescuer
• Submarine communication buoys - used for release in case of emergencies or for communication
• Communication buoy for a bottom pressure sensor, for tsunami detection.
• DAN buoy - has several meanings:
  • a large maritime navigational aid providing a platform for light and radio beacons
  • a lifebuoy with a flags used on yachts and smaller pleasure craft
  • a temporary marker buoy used during minesweeping to indicate boundaries of swept paths, swept areas, known hazards, and other locations or reference points, or to mark a man overboard position.
• Sonobuoy - used by anti-submarine warfare aircraft to detect submarines by SONAR
• Surface Marker Buoy - taken on dives by scuba divers to mark their position underwater
• Decompression buoy - deployed by submerged scuba divers to mark their position underwater whilst doing decompression stops
• shot buoy - used to mark dive sites for the boat safety cover of scuba divers so that the divers can descend to the dive site more easily in conditions of low visibility or tidal currents and more safely do decompression stops on their ascent
• Mooring buoys - used to keep one end of a mooring cable or chain on the water's surface so that ships or boats can tie on to it
• Tripping buoys - used to keep one end of a 'tripping line' on the water's surface so that a stuck anchor can more easily be freed
• Weather buoys - equipped to measure weather parameters such as air temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction and to report these data via satellite radio links to meteorological centres for use in forecasting and climate study. May be anchored (moored buoys) or allowed to drift (drifting buoys) in the open ocean currents. Position is calculated by the satellite.
• Tsunami buoys - anchored buoys that can detect sudden changes in undersea water pressure are used as part of tsunami warning systems in the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Indian Oceans.
• Spar buoy - a tall, thin buoy that floats upright in the water, e.g., R/P FLIP.
• Profiling buoy - specialized models which adjust buoyancy so that they will sink at a controlled rate to 2,000 metres below the surface while measuring sea temperatures and salinity. After at time, typically 10 days, the buoy returns to the surface, transmits its data via satellite, and then sinks again. See Argo (oceanography).
• Ice marking buoys - used for marking ice holes in frozen lakes and rivers, so that snowmobiles do not drive over the holes.
• Marker buoys - used in naval warfare, particularly anti-submarine warfare, is a light-emitting or smoke-emitting, or both, marker using some kind of pyrotechnic to provide the flare and smoke. It is commonly a 3-inch (76 mm) diameter device about 20 inches (500 mm) long that is set off by contact with seawater and floats on the surface. Some markers extinguish after a set period and others are made to sink.
• Lobster trap buoys - brightly colored buoys used for the marking of lobster trap locations so the person lobster fishing can find their lobster traps. Each lobster fisherman has his or her own color markings or registration numbers so they know which ones are theirs. They are only allowed to haul their own traps and must display their buoy color or license number on their boat so law enforcement officials know what they should be hauling. The buoys are brightly colored with highly visible numbers so they can be seen under conditions when there is poor visiblity like rain, fog, sea smoke, etc.
• Waverider buoy - used to measure the movement of the water surface as a wave train. The wave train is analysed to determine statistics like the significant wave height and period, and wave direction.
• Target buoy - used to simulate target (like small boat) in live fire exercise by naval and coastal forces, usually targeted by weapons (medium size) like HMG's, rapid fire cannons (20 or so mm), autocannons (bigger ones up to 40 and 57mm) and also anti-tank rockets.

a concrete base

Other uses

• The word "buoyed" can also be used figuratively. For example, a person could buoy ('lift up') up his partner's spirits by providing help and empathy.
• George A. Stephen, founder of Weber-Stephen Products Co., invented the kettle grill by cutting a metal buoy in half and fashioning a dome shaped grill with a rounded lid.

Gallery

• 
  A buoy used as turn marker for sailing races.
• 
  Old iron buoys, most likely for mooring.
• 
  Kids playing on a buoy in the Volga

See also

• American Practical Navigator
• Captain John Bury
• Coast Pilots
• Day beacon
• Lateral mark
• Light List
• List of Lights
• Lightvessel
• Lighthouse

External links

• Lighthouses and Buoys