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New Coast Watch maps available; Aids anglers by showing Great Lakes surface water temperatures

• By STEVE BEGNOCHE Special to the Daily News
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  • Mar 28, 2023 Updated 12 hrs ago

 The NOAA Coast Watch surface water temperature charts available through Michigan State University and embedded in the Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab GLERL, Ann Arbor, until discontinued in 2022 proved useful to many Great Lakes anglers. The map was supported by Michigan Sea Grant, MSU and a team of volunteers.A new product, the Great Lakes Surface Water Temperature Map, has been developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to once again provide real-time satellite surface water temperatures updated daily.Andrea Vander Woude, NOAA Great Lakes Coast Watch node manager, led development of the new Coast Watch map which is designed to mimic the former MSU product. Songzhi Liu, NOAA operations manager at GLERL, helped develop the product. Chiara Zuccarino-Crowe, Great Lakes outreach specialist and Michigan Sea Grant Liaison to NOAA, was pivotal in the transition from the MSU-hosted product to the new one.Now available to view at  coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/nrt_contour/ , one can click on a Great Lakes port and see surface water temperatures plotted for the lake nearby with a date and time given of when measured by satellite. The new product is in full color instead of black and white.Another click takes you to a contour map of that fills in holes in the satellite temperature map when water surface is masked by clouds. The contour map uses interpolated data from multiple satellite measurements to predict temperatures in those areas, noting they potentially are different from actual temperatures.A website being developed to host the maps should be ready by summer. It is being developed “with careful consideration for accessing the website from phone or tablet,” Vander Woude said.Long-time charter boat captain Jim Fenner, now retired, helped initiate the now-defunct MSU product after a private company quit providing similar charts in 1989. Fenner has been involved ever since and is helping in the current transition.GLERL, he said, always used three-day temperature averages in its reports so adding a real-time reporting product represents a philosophical sea change for the agency.“We want real time data that exists when we go out fishing in the morning,” Fenner said.Anglers seek areas where upwelling cold water could bring bait fish and the sports fish that feed upon them, together. Thermal bars in spring also are sought. The surface temperature charts showing the temperature change contours provided needed information. During a month shortly before Sea Grant’s product was discontinued, Fenner said it tallied 156,000 visits.“People really look for that data. It’s a time and gas saver because you know where to go,” Fenner said.“When MSU’s website went down,” Vander Woude stated, “we were using a gap-free image called the Great Lakes Surface Environmental Analysis (GLSEA) which is used to track trends in surface temperature back to 1995.“The current version is real-time reporting or near real-time imagery. As soon as the data comes down from the satellite to NOAA headquarters and to us, we post it.”Fenner is thrilled the team is working to bring it back. “I was so sad. I had 30 years invested in that program,” he said. “I was crushed.”In 1992 he was in on the initial phone call with then Michigan Sea Grant agent Chuck Pistis that was the seed for the program and met with Pistis and David Lusch of the Remote Sensing Lab at MSU as well as contacted Dr. George Leshkevich at the U-M Great Lakes Environmental Lab about NOAA satellite data that was available and is key to the product.For the next two years, needed permissions for use and development of the information proceeded. In 1994 the first maps were created and distributed by fax for field testing and tweaks. Work continued through the years with researchers and the committee involving charter interests to improve the project until it was ended.Now, the new maps are ready.Fenner has a concern about cloud masking.At issue is differentiating between cold temperatures resulting from clouds and those representing pockets of cold water upwellings in the lakes. Vander Woude said “what satellites see (spectral signature) as a cloud versus cold water is very different and I have not observed any issues with this in the past.” Discussions and talk continue about cloud masking.Vander Woude invites suggestions and feedback from anglers saying it is being designed for them. The Coast Watch email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. VanderWoude can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or by phone, 734-649-0428.