The Upper Great Lakes Observing System (UGLOS) has moved to the new Great Lakes Research Center at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan. This new $25M, 50,000 square ft, state-of-the-art center is dedicated to the study and preservation of the Great Lakes. It houses the resources necessary to manage the UGLOS buoy system which currently serves over-water data needs in Lakes Michigan and Superior and the western basin of Lake Erie. All of the UGLOS buoy data is nearly instantly available to the public on a new and easy to remember website:

http://uglos.mtu.edu

Why use the UGLOS website rather than the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) site (http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov)

Here are three main reasons:

1) All UGLOS buoys report every 10 minutes because, as you know, conditions along the coastlines can change very rapidly.

2) Although NDBC shows UGLOS buoy data, NDBC only collects these observations once per hour to match their hourly reporting cycle for all of their buoys.

3) The UGLOS buoys report more information than is shared by the NDBC site. For instance, the UGLOS site shares the vertical temperature structure from the surface to the bottom of the lake, plus much more.

Finally, the Upper Great Lakes Observing System is a consortium of Great Lakes Universities and private partners (for example, Irish Boat Shop, Walstrom Marine, Bay Harbor, the Cities of Harbor Springs, Petoskey ,and Charlevoix plus many others) working together to sustain safe and enjoyable boating in the Inland Seas of the Great Lakes that we all value.

Guy Meadows- Director

Great Lakes Research Center

Michigan Technological University

gmeadows@mtu.edu