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Great Lakes — Lake Michigan buoys and limnology

Find Great Lakes monitoring buoys, water-temperature data, and ecosystem records — the freshwater equivalent of the marine NDBC/CO-OPS workflow.

What this teaches

  • Combining GLERL, NOAA_GLERL, and GLOS for Great Lakes coverage
  • Reading the wide variable list typical of multi-instrument buoys
  • Finding coastal monitoring stations near a specific city (Waukegan / Winthrop Harbor)

Sources used: GLERL, NOAA_GLERL, GLOS

Prompt

Show me real-time water temperature, wave, and current monitoring buoys
in southwest Lake Michigan near Chicago / Waukegan.

Transcript

1. Scope to SW Lake Michigan

search_datasets(
  collections = "GLERL,NOAA_GLERL,GLOS",
  bbox = "-90,41,-83,46",
  limit = 5
)

Real top hits in the Waukegan area:

ID Title Location Sensor
obs_88_adcp_latest Winthrop Harbor Buoy 45187 -87.78, 42.49 ADCP currents
obs_87_latest Waukegan coastal monitoring buoy 45186 -87.80, 42.37 Met + waves + SST
obs_87_adcp_latest Waukegan buoy 45186 -87.80, 42.37 ADCP currents

Both buoys are operated by the Illinois State Geological Survey (Univ. of Illinois) with funding from Illinois CMP and ongoing service by LimnoTech. Variables include air_pressure, air_temperature, sea_surface_temperature, sea_surface_wave_significant_height, sea_surface_wave_period_at_variance_spectral_density_maximum, wind_speed, wind_speed_of_gust, plus full ADCP velocity profiles (eastward/northward/upward_sea_water_velocity by depth bin).

2. Get a buoy's ERDDAP page

get_item(collection = "GLOS", item_id = "obs_87_latest")

Asset list includes the ERDDAP tabledap form (https://seagull-erddap.glos.org/erddap/tabledap/obs_87_latest.html) plus all standard formats (CSV, NetCDF, JSON, ISO 19115).

Result the agent gave

"Two buoys near the southwestern Lake Michigan shore:

  • Buoy 45186 (Waukegan) — full meteorological + wave + temperature suite, plus ADCP current profiles. Live data: https://seagull-erddap.glos.org/erddap/tabledap/obs_87_latest.html*
  • Buoy 45187 (Winthrop Harbor) — ADCP currents (eastward, northward, upward velocity by depth). Live data: https://seagull-erddap.glos.org/erddap/tabledap/obs_88_adcp_latest.html*

Both are owned by the Illinois State Geological Survey at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, deployed annually since 2018."

Variations

  • Lake Erie / Lake Ontario: change bbox — for Lake Erie use -83.5,41.3,-78.8,43.0.
  • Ice cover: query q = "ice cover" within GLERL,NOAA_GLERL to find seasonal ice products.
  • Long-term water levels: COOPS includes Great Lakes tide-gauge-equivalent stations (e.g., coops_9087031 Calumet Harbor).
  • Ecosystem / harmful algal blooms: GLERL operates HAB tracking products in western Lake Erie.