The Prime Meridian is the universally decided zero longitude, an imaginary north/south line which bisects the world into two and begins the universal day. The line starts at the north pole, passes across the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, and ends at the south pole. Its existence is purely abstract, but it is a globally-unifying line that makes the measurement of time (clocks) and space (maps) consistent across our planet.

The Greenwich line was established in 1884 at the International Meridian Conference, held in Washington DC. That conference's main resolutions were: there was to be a single meridian; it was to cross at Greenwich; there was to be a universal day, and that day would start at mean midnight at the initial meridian. From that moment, the space and time on our globe have been universally coordinated.

Having a single prime meridian brings to the world's cartographers a universal map language allowing them to join their maps together, facilitating international trade and maritime navigation. At the same time, the world now had one matching chronology, a reference by which today you can tell what time of day it is anywhere in the world simply by knowing its longitude.

The tallest structure of Africa is still located close to Monrovia. One of the three remaining antennas of the defunct Omega Navigation system is located in Paynesville, in the greater Monrovia area. Omega was a US – Navigation system operating in the Very Low Frequency (VLF) band, between 10 and 14 kHz. It was used both for navigation as well as for submarine communication. Omega was operated from 1970 until 1997 when GPS proved more accurate.
Due to the extreme wavelength, Omega needed very long antennas. The transmitter in Paynesville used a umbrella antenna suspended on a 417m high mast.

Experience may matter more than innate ability when it comes to sense of direction. //

“People are never perfect, but they can be as accurate as single-digit degrees off, which is incredibly accurate,” says Nora Newcombe, a cognitive psychologist at Temple University who coauthored a look at how navigational ability develops in the 2022 Annual Review of Developmental Psychology. But others, when asked to indicate the target’s direction, seem to point at random. “They have literally no idea where it is.”

Personality, too, appears to play a role in developing navigational ability. “To get good at navigating, you have to be willing to explore,” says Uttal. “Some people do not enjoy the experience of wandering, and others enjoy it very much.”

See current wind, weather, ocean, and pollution conditions, as forecast by supercomputers, on an interactive animated map. Updated every three

OMEGA HAIKU TRANSMITTER B - 1990

Four transmitter building tours with great photos! The Transmitter Room Tour is essential for appreciation of the Omega system.
Ω Transmitter Room (IMPORTANT new photos)
Ω Emergency Generators (At five Omega stations)
Ω Office space tour photographed in 2009 Ω Dummy Load Room & Second Deck

Photo by Steve Malavolti - 1986 - Courtesy of Dr. Hillstrom