Real-time Data

Lake Information on View

You can check out some of the same data streams our scientists use in their studies of large lakes!

Buoys - Two western Lake Superior Buoys are maintained by LLO, with funding from the Great Lakes Observing System, providing current meteorological and water conditions. There is also a Buoys Facebook page with more information. Note: Bouys are not deployed in the winter.

St. Louis Estuary Nowcast System - Every three hours, meteorological data and river flow data is retrieved from stations around the lake, interpolated onto a model grid, and the model is run forward three hours, providing constantly updated projections of temperature and currents.

Gliders - These autonomous underwater vehicles collect data by diving down into the water column and back to the surface as they travel through the lake to sets of programmed GPS coordinates. While underway, the gliders are continuously measuring such parameters as water temperature, backscatter (a metric for the amount of particles in the water), chlorophyll, and CDOM (colored dissolved organic matter).  There are currently only three of these autonomous gliders operating in the Great Lakes, two of which operate out of Duluth.

The LLO's Google Scholar page contains citations for books, book chapters, articles and meeting abstracts created by researchers at the Large Lakes Observatory. 

Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R): data collected using sensors on the RV Blue Heron, such as temperature, chlorophyll, current speeds captured by the ship's ADCP, etc.

The Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS) Data Portal includes the LLO Meteorological Buoys.

Biological & Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office: Some LLO biological and chemical data is archived at BCO-DMO.  Look under the Program, "Laurentian Great Lakes Ecosystem Studies" that may also include data from beyond LLO.