This winter, however, a new type of buoy is hoping to make sure scientists have access to the vital weather data those buoys provide all year.

The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory wants to keep getting more real time data from the lake even during the winter.

It's placing a new buoy in the water near Muskegon to keep measuring water temperature, wave height and wave direction.

A new SOFAR buoy floating in the water. (CIGLR um/WWMT)

 

"A couple of years ago, we deployed one off of a Coast Guard helicopter," said Steve Ruberg, an observing systems researcher with the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. "It got stuck in that shore ice that we get on this side of the state and lived through it. That was our first indication that we might be able to leave these things out in the winter."

 

This data would also help out commercial shippers, recreational users, and Coast Guard icebreakers.

Duck hunters and fishermen will now be able to access data that can give them lifesaving information before they head out on the water, Ruberg said.

Meteorologists and marine forecasters can use the data in the winter to make more accurate forecasts.

"With the rapid changes in climate, we really want to get some additional observations," Ruberg said. "We would like to get those observations in real time so they would then be more easily integrated to the models that could turn into forecasts that we are developing."

Waves and currents play a huge role in the health of an ecosystem.

Bigger waves can bring in more nutrients, which allows phytoplankton to grow and an ecosystem to flourish. These buoys will help researchers monitor ecosystems during the colder months.

The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory says it hopes to replace existing buoys with these new ones in the middle of Lake Michigan in the near future.