Null Island is a fictional island in the Gulf of Guinea added to the Natural Earth public domain map dataset,[1] located where the equator crosses the prime meridian, at coordinates 0°N 0°E.[2][3] Natural Earth describes the entity as a "1 meter square island" with "scale rank 100, indicating it should never be shown in mapping."[1] Although intended humorously, the fiction has a serious purpose and is used by mapping systems to trap errors.[3]
In reality, a weather observation buoy, part of the PIRATA system, is moored at the supposed location of the island.[4]
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 10.3 ms ] threadNull Island is a fictional island in the Gulf of Guinea added to the Natural Earth public domain map dataset,[1] located where the equator crosses the prime meridian, at coordinates 0°N 0°E.[2][3] Natural Earth describes the entity as a "1 meter square island" with "scale rank 100, indicating it should never be shown in mapping."[1] Although intended humorously, the fiction has a serious purpose and is used by mapping systems to trap errors.[3] In reality, a weather observation buoy, part of the PIRATA system, is moored at the supposed location of the island.[4]