GLOS is involved in a number of user-driven projects focused on increasing resilience in marine and coastal areas. GLOS funding assists Great Lakes programs that will upgrade and refurbish our aging observing system components to mitigate disruptions in information collection. In addition to platform upgrades, selected expansion activities were also supported that will help improve our understanding, and thus, bettering the coastal hazard preparedness throughout the Great Lakes.
Projects
Coastal Monitoring
A request for proposals for projects expanding GLOS’ capacity for monitoring the impacts of coastal hazards was developed and released in late fall 2025. Five projects have been awarded:
- The Buffalo-Niagara Waterkeeper will develop a local water level observing network in eastern Lake Erie.
- Superior Watershed Partnership will expand and modernize the buoy network in Lake Superior, deploying three new Spotter buoys.
- Two new buoys will be deployed by NEW Water to better characterize the wave conditions in lower Green Bay
- The University of Colorado Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) will establish a satellite derived bathymetric data pipeline.
- The Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR) will deploy two floating sensors capable of providing near real-time ice thickness measurements throughout the winter
Water Levels and Waves
Ocean Technology Transition Project (OTT)
Communities are limited by the existing frequency gap in coastal observations that this project will address by providing a nearshore system that captures full-frequency information and finally fills an observational gap that has historically left communities vulnerable to many kinds of hazards.
The overarching goal of the project is to develop both a low-cost observing network capable of gathering offshore full-frequency water level fluctuations and the methodology to relate that data with the most pressing water level-related coastal hazards.
The Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS) is leading the project with support from investigators and collaborators from University of Wisconsin-Madison, Colorado School of Mines, Michigan Technological University, Sofar Ocean Technologies, and NOAA CO-OPS.
Webcams
Information will be updated as the project advances
Coastal communities are constantly reminded of both the beauty and power of the Great Lakes, the latter of which often comes with consequences. These consequences can include storm induced waves and flooding, that can have profound effects on Great Lakes communities of all sizes.