Three (3) nearshore buoys are deployed from May through October along the southern shore of Lake Ontario at the locations indicated in the map below. Each buoy consists of a yellow six foot diameter, dense foam float with a mast that extends approximately nine feet (~3 m) above the water surface. Temperature chains hang from each buoy extending from the surface to the lake bottom with temperature probes spaced at one meter (~3 ft) intervals. The Oak Orchard and Oswego buoys include meteorological instruments to measure air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, and solar radiation. A water quality datasonde is deployed near the surface from the Oswego buoy. The datasonde measures water temperature, specific conductivity, turbidity and chlorophyll-a.
The buoys are owned by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry(SUNY ESF) and operated under the Great Lakes Research Consortium (GLRC) by the Upstate Freshwater Institute (UFI). These data are also available through the Great Lake Observing System’s (GLOS) Great Lakes Buoy Portal.
Funding
The Oak Orchard and Sodus Point buoys are supported by a grant from New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC).
The Oswego buoy is supported by a grant from the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS).
Additional Services Provided By
Port of Oswego Marina
Ernst Lake’s Breeze Marina at Oak Orchard
RoboShop Inc.
