TRAVERSE CITY -- Temperatures 64 feet beneath Grand Traverse Bay are warmer than those that will greet some locals on their front porch this week.
That's because cold water descends and warm water rises, which resulted in 48-degree bay temperatures Tuesday.
"We're amazed at how mixed it is vertically," said Guy Meadows, director of the University of Michigan's Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories.
Researchers can track water temperatures up to 64 feet below the bay, thanks to a "thermistor" buoy, recently dropped three miles north of Old Mission Peninsula.
The buoy records water temperatures at eight depths every six minutes. Water temperatures are transmitted to the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories through cell phone technology attached to the buoy.
"We don't have anything like this in northern Lake Michigan," said Hans VanSumeren, director of Northwestern Michigan College's Water Studies Institute. "It's a very useful piece of information."
Meadows said data can be used to help maintain the "pristine water quality the Grand Traverse Bay is known for."
"We're interested in seeing how it exchanges its water with Lake Michigan," Meadows said.
And because water temperatures are posted to the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories' Web site, anyone can access the data.
Anglers can use the data to determine how deep they should drop their bait, VanSumeren said.
The buoy was funded by a $13,000 grant from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
"We very much are concerned with the health of our waters, and even our lake shores," said Derek Bailey, chairman of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. "We're looking at how this will affect our future generations."
Most of the grant money went to the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories, which spent six months building the device.
The thermistor buoy is part of the University of Michigan's Upper Great Lakes Observing System, which has three buoys in Grand Traverse Bay. The other two buoys record waves and currents on the surface, but the thermistor buoy measures below the surface, VanSumeren said.
Researchers will pull the buoy late this month to avoid ice damage, and redeploy it after ice melts in the spring.
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