Sector Fire

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Aarøsund lighthouse with red and green sectors glowing
The same lighthouse on the nautical chart (together with Ærø Fyr )

With sector fire is called in the seafaring a beacon that is not uniformly illuminated the entire horizon field, but in the different directions of light with different identifiers radiates. Different colors are often used, for example red, white, green. Alternatively, different clocks can be used, which are divided into blinking, flashing, sparkling, common mode or interruptions according to the length of the light and dark phases. The course to be steered can be found on the nautical chart . Most sector fires are set up so that one should be moving in the White Sector as one is heading towards or away from the fire. In very narrow passages also be held sector fires leading lights used.

A special case are dark sectors, i.e. directions from which the fire cannot be seen. They are also drawn on the nautical chart so that the skipper knows from which directions he can not see a lighthouse , for example because there is an island in front of it.

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