NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

A collection of educational resources for teachers and students about GPS. The Global Positioning System is a U.S.-owned utility that provides users with positioning, navigation, and timing services.

Help improve the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) by participating in GPS on Benchmarks (GPS on BM). GPS on BM has three important steps: recover, observe, and report. Recover: Using web maps or other desktop tools to look up the description of an existing benchmark and visit the benchmark of your choice and submit a mark recovery. Observe: Record field notes, take digital photos, and collect GPS observations for the bench mark you visit. Report: Use online tools to send the information to the National Geodetic Survey.

This forecast data product from the National Weather Service provides an interactive map, which can be customized to feature data on temperature, precipitation, hazard, humidity, wind, cloud cover, snow and ice, fire, wave, tornado, hurricane, and more. Once users select a chosen region and data type, they can generate a bookmarkable URL, so they can return to the same forecast at later dates.

These detailed bathymetry maps of the Great Lakes can be viewed digitally or printed as color posters (full-size and mini). You can also download bathymetry contours as Esri Shapefiles.

The Great Lakes Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) is a tool for visualizing environmental contaminant data in the region, as well as information on natural resources, habitats, weather, water levels, and currents. Great Lakes ERMA is used to facilitate pollution response, cleanup, and restoration and is the most comprehensive collection of contaminant data in the region. NOAA’s ERMA is a critical tool for equipping experts to coordinate with partners and natural resource managers, including the Environmental Protection Agency, NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, and State and Tribal partners, across the Great Lakes region.

View or print these digital posters of food webs for each of the Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair from the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory! They briefly describe the major species in each lake, and include a diagram summarizing the ecosystem energy flow (who eats or is eaten by whom!). These diagrams are based on a model from a paper published in 2003 supported by both NOAA and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

Use the Great Lakes Coastal Forecasting System to view real-time data and forecasts for any of the Great Lakes. For most locations, you can view forecasts for wind, waves, ice, surface temperature, surface currents, temperature profiles, and water levels.

This web-based tool creates visuals that capture lake level changes that range from six feet above to six feet below historical long-term average water levels in the Great Lakes. Potential shoreline and coastal impacts are also provided through a social vulnerability index and a business layer that shows numbers of employees in coastal areas. This information can be used to think about appropriate preparations, including zoning restrictions, infrastructure improvements, and habitat conservation.

View real-time and recent satellite images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. Download high-resolution images in multiple formats.

This expansive Great Lake photo collection includes a wide variety of photo galleries, including harmful algal blooms, fish, historical images, ice, environmental sampling, shipwrecks, restoration, and more. The collection is curated by the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.