The Great Lakes Observing System works to make real-time and historical data publicly available to the larger Great Lakes community, benefiting data users and decision makers in the Great Lakes.

GLOS also provides data services to support the region’s need for data, modeling, and other data tools or products. For more information on the benefits of GLOS data, see Focus Areas and Projects.

GLOS makes data accessible through our web based Data Portal and specialized decision support tools. Tools allow users to access (view), browse (search), and optionally download data or datasets. Data can also be accessed directly through web-services for the advanced user.
The Data Portal provides browsing access to near – real time data for:

• Point Observations (winds, waves, water temperature, water levels, air temperature, dissolved oxygen, streamflow and turbidity)
• Satellite Observations (base reflectivity including weather hazards, chlorophyll concentration, colored dissolved organic matter, dissolved organic carbon, natural color, suspended minerals and water surface temperature)
• Model Forecasts (currents, ice thickness, water level, waves, winds).

It also provides search access to metadata from numerous partner stations and from our GeoNetwork instance
Learn more about the type of data available on our Technologies and Data Categories pages