Buoy System Diagram and Sensors

The buoy system consist of 3 main components

  1. Surface Buoy (2500# buoyancy; A 5 ft diameter) - equipped with the master data logger, battery power, solar panels, and meteorological station.
  2. Subsurface Sensor String and Buoy (100# buoyancy) - equipped with most of the water sensors that are attached along a cable that extends to the bottom of the lake.  This system is tethered to the Surface Buoy to which provides for power and data transmission.
  3. Bottom-mounted platform - equipped with a sensor that measures the direction and speed of the water.
Muskegon Lake Observatory Buoy system showing above water and below water sensor locations and parameters measured

Main Surface Buoy Sensors
  • LUFFT WS600 Meteorological station with
    • Air Temperature
    • Relative humidity
    • Precipitation intensity, type, and quantity
    • Air pressure
    • Wind direction and speed
Top of Muskegon Lake Observatory Buoy with Lufft meteorological sensor and navigation light

Subsurface Buoy Water Sensors
  • Nexsens Temperature T-nodes
  • YSI 6600/ 6920 Multiparameter sondes
    • YSI combo temperature / conductivity  
    • YSI 6561 pH
    • YSI 6136 Turbidity
    • YSI 6150 Optical DO
    • YSI 6025 Chlorophyll
    • YSI 6131 Phycocyanin
  • Turner C3 with CDOM, Chlorophyll, and Phycocyanin (Fluorometric)
  • Satlantic SUNA - Nitrates
  • LI-COR PAR LI-192 Photovoltaic detector

Bottom-mounted Sensors
  • Teledyne RDI water current (speed and direction) Workhorse Monitor 1200KHz Acoustic doppler
Bottom-mounted ADCP measures current speed and direction

Page last modified February 14, 2020
Report a problem with this page