MHL: Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory

The University of Michigan Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories' (MHL) Upper Great Lakes Observing System began with the deployment of Station 1 in 2005. With support of many partners, the local community, and the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS), the MHL has added two more stations (Station 2 and Station 3). Through partnership with Northwestern College's Water Studies Institute with funding from The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the MHL will design and fabricate a thermistor buoy for deployment in Grand Traverse Bay (near Station 3) late summer 2009. Plans are currently in the works for the deployment of two more environmental monitoring buoys this fall. One buoy will be deployed in Little Traverse Bay. The fabrication of this buoy will be funded by GLOS and the buoy maintenance will be supported by Little Traverse Bay local communities. The other buoy will be funded by Michigan Tech University and GLOS and is to be deployed in Lake Superior off shore from MTU's new Great Lakes Research Facility. All of the U-GLOS data is available real time, updated every ten minutes on our website. The data is also available and archived on the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) website.