Oceanographic and surface meteorological water parameter data collected from moored Realtime Coastal Observation Network, ReCON, Muskegon M20 Buoy (NDBC station 45161), Lake Michigan, in the Great Lakes region by NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory from 2020-07-30 to 2020-10-27 (NCEI Accession 0243922)

NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory collected the data from moored Realtime Coastal Observation Network, ReCON, Muskegon M20 Buoy (NDBC station 45161), Lake Michigan, an in-situ moored station, in the Great Lakes. Observations have been collected at this location since 2009, this record contains the 2020 observations. Note, the short deployment of this buoy in 2020 is due to COVID-19 and a reduced field work season. This station is also known as NOAA National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) station Muskegon Buoy, MI (45161). A temporal subset of these data are available from NDBC and the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS) since 2012, this data accession contains the complete record of observations.

The ReCON buoy provides continuous, real-time observations facilitates modification of sampling parameters in anticipation of episodic events, facilitates the collection of field samples in response to episodic events, supports long term research, and contributes to sensor and system development. Parameters collected include currents and water temperature. The block of text at the beginning of each file contains information about the location and sensor used to collect data and the data headers followed by the observed data. Column 1 of the data is the timestamp, column 2 is the observed data, and column 3, where applicable, the QARTOD flag. Five QARTOD tests were run including gross range, climatological, spike, rate of change, and flat line tests. The highest value from the five tests were included under the “Qartod” column. If data were known to be invalid, that line of data was removed from the dataset.