saturn·

data trove lighthouses worldwide

source /home/coolhand/html/datavis/data_trove/data/quirky/lighthouses.json 14,585 rows 13 columns profiled 2026-06-22 raw JSON static .html .ipynb Report Notebook

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dataset summary · medium confidence anthropic:default

This dataset contains 14,585 lighthouse and seamark records sourced from OpenStreetMap, covering navigational lights and related structures worldwide. The most immediately striking feature is that many descriptive columns — country, operator, year_built, height, and heritage — have null rates of 90% or higher, meaning the richest analysis must focus on the minority of well-filled records. Two columns worth close inspection are seamark_type, which cleanly splits records into light_minor (3,496), light_major (3,051), and landmark (716) with no nulls beyond the 48% gap, and light_character, where 'Fl' (flashing) dominates at 74.7% of non-null values across 19 pattern types. Geographically, all 14,585 records carry latitude and longitude, revealing a notable left skew in latitude (mean 34.5°, median 40.8°) with 1,295 outliers, suggesting a clustering of records in the Northern Hemisphere with some Southern outliers worth mapping.

citing: row_count · column_count · seamark_type.top_values · seamark_type.null_rate · light_character.top_rate · light_character.top_value · light_character.null_rate · lat.mean · lat.median · lat.skew · lat.n_outliers · country.null_rate · operator.null_rate · year_built.null_rate · height.null_rate · osm_type.top_values

Schema

13 columns
Per-column summary. Click column name to jump to its detail.
Alerts
name text 0.0% 14,239
near_unique
lat numeric 0.0% 14,572
outliers
lon numeric 0.0% 14,565
country categorical 99.6% 19
long_tail null_rate
height categorical 90.2% 316
long_tail null_rate
year_built categorical 93.2% 429
long_tail null_rate
operator categorical 92.7% 283
long_tail null_rate
seamark_type categorical 48.0% 25
null_rate
light_character categorical 71.3% 19
null_rate
heritage categorical 96.9% 7
null_rate
wikipedia text 86.2% 1,965
near_unique null_rate
osm_id numeric 0.0% 14,584
osm_type categorical 0.0% 2

name

text label near_unique
This column contains the proper names of lighthouses, drawn from a multilingual global dataset — 'lighthouse', 'faro' (Spanish/Italian), 'fyr' (Scandinavian), 'phare' (French), 'farol' (Portuguese), and 'маяк' (Russian/Cyrillic) all appear in the top words, confirming broad geographic coverage. With 14,239 unique values across 14,585 rows, the near-unique alert is expected for a name field; the 346 duplicates (2.37%) likely reflect shared names for distinct structures (e.g., 'North Light'). Average name length is ~19 characters with a median of 2 words, consistent with short proper-noun phrases. The multilingual vocabulary mix is the key surprise and warrants attention if name-matching or NLP is planned. Treatment: Use as a display label or entity identifier; normalize Unicode and language variants before any string-matching or embedding. high · anthropic:default
n
14,585
nulls
0 (0.0%)
unique
14,239
len_min
2
len_max
91
len_mean
18.95
len_median
21
len_p95
27
word_mean
2.327
word_median
2
n_empty
0
n_duplicates
346
duplicate_rate
0.02372
vocab_size
14,670
readability_flesch_mean
75.78
emoji_rate
0
url_rate
0
one_word_rate
0.1068
allcaps_rate
0.05794
boilerplate_rate
0

lat

numeric feature outliers
This column represents geographic latitude, with values ranging from -63.4° (near Antarctica) to 81.8° (high Arctic), consistent with global location data across 14,585 records. The distribution is notably left-skewed (skew = -1.46) with a mean of 34.5° but a median of 40.8°, suggesting a concentration of records in mid-to-high Northern Hemisphere latitudes pulled down by a Southern Hemisphere tail. Nearly 9% of values (1,295) are flagged as outliers, likely corresponding to records in the Southern Hemisphere or extreme polar regions which are genuinely sparse in most datasets. Uniqueness is near-perfect (14,572 of 14,585 values distinct), implying precise coordinate capture with minimal rounding. Treatment: Use as-is or pair with longitude for spatial modelling; consider binning into latitude bands or projecting to Cartesian coordinates for distance-based algorithms. high · anthropic:default
n
14,585
nulls
0 (0.0%)
unique
14,572
min
-63.4
max
81.8
mean
34.52
median
40.81
std
24.64
q1
28.11
q3
48.98
iqr
20.87
skew
-1.458
kurtosis
2.028
n_outliers
1,295
outlier_rate
0.08879
zero_rate
0

lon

numeric feature
This column contains geographic longitude values, spanning the full valid range from -179.2 to 179.3 degrees with a mean near 23° and median near 15°, suggesting a slight concentration of observations in Europe/Africa relative to the Americas and East Asia. The distribution is nearly symmetric (skew ≈ 0.05) and platykurtic (kurtosis ≈ -0.95), consistent with a broad, flat spread of coordinates across the globe rather than clustering around a single region. Near-uniqueness (14,565 distinct values out of 14,585 rows) and zero nulls confirm these are precise geospatial measurements, not coarse bins. The IQR of ~153 degrees reinforces global coverage. Treatment: Pair with latitude for spatial modelling; consider map-projection or trigonometric encoding (sin/cos) to handle the -180/180 wraparound boundary. high · anthropic:default
n
14,585
nulls
0 (0.0%)
unique
14,565
min
-179.2
max
179.3
mean
23.04
median
14.97
std
79.4
q1
-40.5
q3
112.4
iqr
152.9
skew
0.0526
kurtosis
-0.9537
n_outliers
0
outlier_rate
0
zero_rate
0

country

categorical long_tail null_rate
n
14,585
nulls
14,524 (99.6%)
unique
19
top_value
LV
top_rate
0.2951
cardinality
19
entropy
3.442
entropy_ratio
0.8102

height

categorical feature long_tail null_rate
This column represents a numeric height measurement stored as a categorical/string type, with values that appear to be small integers (range visible: 6–20, likely in inches or some domain-specific unit). The most alarming signal is a null rate of 90.18%, meaning only ~1,433 of 14,585 rows carry any value at all — this is a severely sparse field. Among non-null values, 316 unique levels exist with modest concentration (top value '15' appears in only 4.12% of rows) and a high entropy ratio of 0.823, indicating the non-null values are broadly spread rather than clustered. Treatment: Cast to numeric after handling nulls; impute or flag missing values given the 90.18% null rate before modelling. medium · anthropic:default
n
14,585
nulls
13,153 (90.2%)
unique
316
top_value
15
top_rate
0.0412
cardinality
316
entropy
6.837
entropy_ratio
0.8234

year_built

categorical feature long_tail null_rate
This column represents the year a structure was built, but it has been parsed as categorical rather than numeric, likely because it contains century-level codes such as 'C19' and 'C20' mixed with specific years like '1875' and '1906'. The null rate is extremely high at 93.2%, meaning only about 990 of 14,585 rows carry any value at all. Among populated values, 429 distinct entries exist with the top value 'C19' appearing only 31 times (3.1% of non-null rows), indicating a very long tail. The mixed format — century codes alongside specific years — signals data quality issues that require harmonisation before any temporal analysis. Treatment: Impute or exclude 93.2% nulls, normalise century codes ('C19' → 1800–1899) to numeric ranges, then convert to integer or ordinal decade bins before modelling. high · anthropic:default
n
14,585
nulls
13,593 (93.2%)
unique
429
top_value
C19
top_rate
0.03125
cardinality
429
entropy
8.142
entropy_ratio
0.9311

operator

categorical label long_tail null_rate
This column records the operating authority or agency responsible for a navigational aid or maritime infrastructure asset — dominated by coast guard entities (U.S., Philippine, and Chinese 海上保安厅) alongside European bodies like Plovput and INEA. The 92.7% null rate is the critical anomaly: only 1,074 of 14,585 rows carry a value, meaning operator attribution is nearly absent across the dataset. Among populated rows, entropy ratio of 0.861 across 283 unique values signals a long tail of rarely-seen operators beyond the top few, and the top value 'U.S. Coast Guard' covers only 7.7% of non-null rows. The presence of CJK characters (海上保安庁) confirms a multilingual mix requiring normalisation before any grouping or analysis. Treatment: Impute or flag nulls explicitly, normalise multilingual variants to a canonical form, then use as a categorical grouping variable with an 'Unknown' level for the 92.7% missing. high · anthropic:default
n
14,585
nulls
13,520 (92.7%)
unique
283
top_value
U.S. Coast Guard
top_rate
0.077
cardinality
283
entropy
7.013
entropy_ratio
0.8611

seamark_type

categorical label null_rate
This column captures the classification of maritime seamarks (navigational aids such as lights, beacons, and landmarks), drawn from what appears to be nautical/GIS data. Nearly half the rows (48.01%) are null, which is flagged as an alert and likely reflects features in the dataset that are not seamarks at all. Among the 7,588 populated rows, the distribution is heavily skewed toward light types: 'light_minor' alone accounts for 46.1% of non-null values, and combined with 'light_major' these two dominate, while the remaining 23 categories (beacons, landmarks, buildings, etc.) cover a long tail. Entropy ratio of 0.357 confirms moderate but uneven spread across the 25 categories. Treatment: Impute nulls only if missingness is structurally meaningful (i.e., non-seamark features); otherwise keep as-is, one-hot or ordinal encode the 25 categories, and consider grouping rare categories (≤5 occurrences) into an 'other' bucket before modelling. high · anthropic:default
n
14,585
nulls
7,002 (48.0%)
unique
25
top_value
light_minor
top_rate
0.461
cardinality
25
entropy
1.657
entropy_ratio
0.3569

light_character

categorical feature null_rate
This column encodes the light character (flashing pattern) of maritime navigational aids — values like 'Fl' (flashing), 'Iso' (isophase), 'Oc' (occulting), and 'LFl' (long flashing) are standard IALA light notation. The dominant concern is a 71.31% null rate, meaning nearly three-quarters of records carry no light character, likely because many features in the dataset are unlighted aids or non-light structures. Among populated rows, 'Fl' accounts for 74.7% of non-null values, making the distribution heavily skewed across 19 categories. Treatment: Impute nulls with an explicit 'None/Unlighted' category, then one-hot or ordinal encode the 19 light character types before modelling. high · anthropic:default
n
14,585
nulls
10,401 (71.3%)
unique
19
top_value
Fl
top_rate
0.7471
cardinality
19
entropy
1.503
entropy_ratio
0.3539

heritage

categorical null_rate
n
14,585
nulls
14,132 (96.9%)
unique
7
top_value
2
top_rate
0.7572
cardinality
7
entropy
1.244
entropy_ratio
0.4431

wikipedia

text metadata near_unique null_rate
This column contains Wikipedia article titles or slugs for lighthouse-related entries, as evidenced by top words including 'lighthouse', 'light', 'fr:phare', 'es:faro', 'de:leuchtturm', and 'pt:farol' — indicating multilingual cross-references. The column is extremely sparse, with an 86.23% null rate across 14,585 rows, meaning only ~2,027 rows carry a value. Despite being flagged near-unique, there are 43 duplicate values across 1,965 unique entries, which is low but worth noting if this is intended as a one-to-one reference. Treatment: Use as an optional external reference link; impute or exclude nulls before joining, and investigate the 43 duplicates for data quality issues. high · anthropic:default
n
14,585
nulls
12,577 (86.2%)
unique
1,965
len_min
6
len_max
55
len_mean
22.3
len_median
22
len_p95
33
word_mean
2.996
word_median
3
n_empty
0
n_duplicates
43
duplicate_rate
0.02141
vocab_size
2,370
readability_flesch_mean
48.92
emoji_rate
0
url_rate
0
one_word_rate
0.0762
allcaps_rate
0
boilerplate_rate
0

osm_id

numeric foreign_key
This column contains OpenStreetMap object identifiers, a well-known external reference system where numeric IDs are assigned sequentially as features are added to the OSM database. Nearly all 14,585 rows have a unique ID (only 1 duplicate exists across 14,584 unique values), and the null rate is zero, indicating high integrity. The wide IQR of ~5.4 billion and right skew (1.07) reflect OSM's historical ID growth — older features have lower IDs while newer additions push into the 10+ billion range, which is consistent with OSM's current ID space. Treatment: Use as a join key to OSM data sources; do not use as a numeric feature in modelling. high · anthropic:default
n
14,585
nulls
0 (0.0%)
unique
14,584
min
1.339e+07
max
1.353e+10
mean
3.723e+09
median
1.574e+09
std
3.828e+09
q1
1.001e+09
q3
6.402e+09
iqr
5.401e+09
skew
1.073
kurtosis
-0.1991
n_outliers
0
outlier_rate
0
zero_rate
0

osm_type

categorical feature
This column captures the OpenStreetMap geometry type, distinguishing between point features ('node') and linear/polygon features ('way'). With only 2 distinct values across 14,585 rows and zero nulls, it is a clean binary indicator. The distribution is notably skewed: 'node' dominates at 77.9% (11,358 records) versus 'way' at 22.1% (3,227 records), reflecting the typical OSM pattern where point features outnumber area/line features. Entropy ratio of 0.76 confirms moderate imbalance but not extreme dominance. Treatment: One-hot encode or binary-encode (node=1, way=0) before modelling; consider as a stratification variable given the 78/22 class split. high · anthropic:default
n
14,585
nulls
0 (0.0%)
unique
2
top_value
node
top_rate
0.7787
cardinality
2
entropy
0.7625
entropy_ratio
0.7625