Weather/Enviro Buoy on the lake?

[CanisLupusArctos]

Here's an idea that's been running around my head for the last few years, and I finally decided to Google it and see what came up.

Seems a bunch of people on Lake Sunapee have pooled resources to establish a weather & environmental monitoring buoy on their lake. It's part of a global initiative on lake monitoring as outlined in this article: http://www.calit2.net/newsroom/article.php?id=1257

Imagine a "Broads Buoy" capable of a vertical water temp profile, wave height readings, weather, etc... maybe even with four small webcams (since we now know it's possible, thanks to IG's successful MOUNTcam experiments.)

Last year Bizer and I exchanged a few emails about putting a daymark on Black Cat Shoals (he's a fan of daymarks for boater safety.) When I saw a picture of one, it had a weather station on it, and I was immediately interested. Could serve as a fixed weather buoy (similar to the lighthouse-based instrumentation that NOAA includes in their ocean buoy system) transmitting to shore, and have its data included with the rest of the data Black Cat Island Weather Station measures.

Anyway... that sort of stuff was just a crazy idea in my head until I found out it's already being done on a global initiative with a site already in NH.... so I thought I'd share.

[brk-lnt]

That would be a neat experiment.

I've toyed off and on with various weather/environmental sensors over the years. I have more fun building interface and communications circuits than actually doing much with the data. I have built some various 1-wire interfaces for logging temperature, humidity, windspeed, rainfall, etc. along with RF links for remote sensor placement.

If I had access to waterfront, or a similar place to position a sensor, I would likely have some sort of on-line data and trend graph. Being able to put something out on a buoy would be fun as well.

[SAUGUS BOATER]

NOAA and GoMoos operate a whole system of these weather buoys in Boston Harbor and the greater Gulf of Maine area. You can go on the internet and get real time weather and sea conditions, as well as graphs of the recent history of wind/waves as well as a forecast of whats to come.

here is the web site:
http://www.gomoos.org/data/recent.html

something like this would be great for the lake !

[Rattlesnake Gal]

A weather/Enviro Buoy sounds great!
For the past couple of years Rattlesnake Guy and I have kicked around the idea of having a WaveCam with sensors at our place too. The technology keeps evolving, so eventually I hope it would be a quick project for us.

[MAXUM]

I see only one downside to your idea, that being sombody running it over or smashing into it. I know due to recient events this comment may be in slightly poor taste, but it seems like there are at least a few incidents each year where people manage to run their boats into all sorts of things. :eek: Other than that it'd be pretty neat to have that kind of real time weather information.

[CanisLupusArctos]

I see only one downside to your idea, that being sombody running it over or smashing into it. I know due to recient events this comment may be in slightly poor taste, but it seems like there are at least a few incidents each year where people manage to run their boats into all sorts of things. :eek: Other than that it'd be pretty neat to have that kind of real time weather information.

I thought of that too. We'd have to talk to the people on Lake Sunapee and see if they've had any problems with it. There are also fixed buoys (ex.- a weather station mounted to a daymark that's drilled into a reef like Black Cat Shoals). A "Broads" buoy would likely need to be of beefy design like the ones on the harbors and coastal waters (not offshore Wx buoys which are up to 12 meters diameter!), since The Broads can be like the coastal waters at times. If anyone hit a buoy like that, they'd have to be a total idiot, and the buoy would win that battle.

[SAUGUS BOATER]

Here's a picture of the weather buoy in Boston Harbor. You have to be pretty "challenged" to hit something this big (and bright yellow to boot).!:confused:

It also has a flashing yellow light.

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=44013

[CanisLupusArctos]

Here's a picture of the weather buoy in Boston Harbor. You have to be pretty "challenged" to hit something this big (and bright yellow to boot).!:confused:

It also has a flashing yellow light.

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=44013

My thoughts exactly. Although even a 3-meter dia. buoy might be a bit much for Winnipesaukee. Here is NDBC's page of buoy designs.

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/mooredbuoy.shtml

They have smaller buoys than the 3m discus. The Lake Sunapee group designed their own I think. It was in the article of my original post. There's a picture of it too.

NOAA's largest ocean buoy, the 12m discus, comes out to 39 feet diameter.... they say it has to be towed to its location behind a USCG cutter. Geez if we put that in Winnipesaukee we could tow it out to The Broads behind the MOUNT and host a ForumFest on it. Maybe even install a couple of docks. No BBQs though - that would affect the air temperature readings. :laugh:

[SAUGUS BOATER]

Geez if we put that in Winnipesaukee we could tow it out to The Broads behind the MOUNT and host a ForumFest on it. Maybe even install a couple of docks. No BBQs though - that would affect the air temperature readings. :laugh:

Or even better, put some palm trees and a nice tiki bar on it and we could have a floating bar in the middle of the broads. (kind of like the Rockmoor in the middle of Salem (Ma.) Harbor.:cool:

[CanisLupusArctos]

Or even better, put some palm trees and a nice tiki bar on it and we could have a floating bar in the middle of the broads. (kind of like the Rockmoor in the middle of Salem (Ma.) Harbor.:cool:

Now you're talkin!!!!! With an idea that unique, we could probably get Jimmy Buffett to give concerts on it! :cool:

[Ropetow]

Saugus Boater: When I was a Mass---- and boated out of the Winthrop Yacht Club I heard a story of someone ramming one of those weather buoys!:eek: Yes, Captain Bonehead also boats down there. He is everywhere!:rolleye2:

PS----I miss Hilltop!

[EricP]

PS----I miss Hilltop!
It's not that far away :liplick:

[Mee-n-Mac]

Here's an idea that's been running around my head for the last few years, and I finally decided to Google it and see what came up.

Seems a bunch of people on Lake Sunapee have pooled resources to establish a weather & environmental monitoring buoy on their lake. It's part of a global initiative on lake monitoring as outlined in this article: http://www.calit2.net/newsroom/article.php?id=1257

Imagine a "Broads Buoy" capable of a vertical water temp profile, wave height readings, weather, etc... maybe even with four small webcams (since we now know it's possible, thanks to IG's successful MOUNTcam experiments.)

Last year Bizer and I exchanged a few emails about putting a daymark on Black Cat Shoals (he's a fan of daymarks for boater safety.) When I saw a picture of one, it had a weather station on it, and I was immediately interested. Could serve as a fixed weather buoy (similar to the lighthouse-based instrumentation that NOAA includes in their ocean buoy system) transmitting to shore, and have its data included with the rest of the data Black Cat Island Weather Station measures.

Anyway... that sort of stuff was just a crazy idea in my head until I found out it's already being done on a global initiative with a site already in NH.... so I thought I'd share.

Apparently you, I and some others have been thinking along the same lines. A couple of years ago, in response to some rather "imaginative" posts as to how big waves and wakes were on the lake I designed a wave monitoring sensor. Never did build one but this post has revived the memory. I thought it would be "kewl" to have a system of such devices spread about the lake to see what was up (wave-wise). I didn't plan on incorporating any real-time feedback, just recording onto a USB drive the data for later retrieval (1 week at a time). Since this was to come out of my own pocket, $$ was a primary consideration. So how serious are "we" about doing something and just what might it be that "we" want to do ? Might be fun to dig up and revise the old plans.

FWIW : I also looking into a water clarity vs depth measurement, done electronically vs the Secchi disk. Thought such a system might yeild interesting data on water clarity vs season.

[brk-lnt]

FWIW : I also looking into a water clarity vs depth measurement, done electronically vs the Secchi disk. Thought such a system might yeild interesting data on water clarity vs season.

What did you find for turbidity sensors? Last time I looked into doing clarity monitoring (for my koi pond) the sensors were kind of costly.

[Mee-n-Mac]

What did you find for turbidity sensors? Last time I looked into doing clarity monitoring (for my koi pond) the sensors were kind of costly.

I found a grad student (IIRC it was overseas someplace in Switzerland ?) who had designed a custom system using a LED and 2 sensors in a "block" of acrylic. I saved the link on some other PC I have and I'll try to look them up when I get back home. The basic idea was to have a source (the LED) beam to 2 sensors through a partially silvered mirror. Sensor #1 was contained with the block and was used to measured the LED output power. Sensor #2 was a fixed distance away from the source, included the water in it's path and measured received power from the LED. Combining the 2 gave you a measure of turbidity, though one not strictly related to a Secchi disk. Lowering the block to various depths gave you turbidity vs depth (obviously). It seemed pretty inexpensive and if "we" made a series of measurements (vs depth) while also doing the normal Secchi disk measurements, it seemed to me we could get a correlation between the 2 systems. I'll post back what I can find from the link when I retrieve it.

[SAUGUS BOATER]

Saugus Boater: When I was a Mass---- and boated out of the Winthrop Yacht Club I heard a story of someone ramming one of those weather buoys!:eek: Yes, Captain Bonehead also boats down there. He is everywhere!:rolleye2:

PS----I miss Hilltop!


they don't call us Mass----s for nothing !!!!!:rolleye1:
When you have a collision with an ocean buoy, the buoy always wins !

p.s. - you ain't missing much, Hilltop is really awful now .

[brk-lnt]

I found a grad student (IIRC it was overseas someplace in Switzerland ?) who had designed a custom system using a LED and 2 sensors in a "block" of acrylic.

Sounds like an interesting idea. The problem I always had was buildup of "crud" over time, which caused the sensors to become inaccurate.

[Mee-n-Mac]

Sounds like an interesting idea. The problem I always had was buildup of "crud" over time, which caused the sensors to become inaccurate.

Yup, that would be a problem even here in freshwater. I wonder if a roll of clear film over the sensing area(s) that periodically could be turned by motor might work. Kind of like the tear offs dirt bike racers use or more like what's used on motorsports cameras that have to operate out of the car (Indy, F1). Have big enough rolls to last a season and service them, cleaning and replacing the roll once per season ?

Or perhaps period blasts of compressed air to clean the sensing area(s) ?

Perhaps motorized wipers like my wife's cars headlights ?