Bear Lake Water-Quality Data Visualizations
Displaying water-quality data with depth over time at a single location has always presented a challenge. These data visualizations were developed as a response to that issue by Katherine Jones, USGS Office of Quality Assurance.
Water-quality instrumentation has been deployed on Bear Lake every spring since 2018. The instrumentation is housed on two floating platforms that are anchored at specific locations until late fall, when they must be removed before freezing air temperatures are reached. One platform has remained at a permanent location, while the other platform has rotated to various locations on the lake. Platform locations are shown below.
Seven water-quality parameters (temperature, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, phycocyanin, and turbidity) are measured from each platform every 4 hours at 1-meter intervals from 1 meter below the lake's surface to a location near the bottom of the lake. The data is sent through cellular service to the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) and then uploaded into the interactive data visualizations accessible from this page.
