A network of the BEACON buoys have resided in Boston Harbor since July of 2009.  Along the way, the buoys have undergone several redesigns to serve various monitoring objectives. The current generation of the buoys was built in 2015 and includes 3 buoys located in 3 different zones of the harbor. The buoys monitor atmospheric events such as wind direction and speed, temperature, humidity, PAR (photosynthetic light), and barometric pressure.  Just below the water surface the buoys monitor temperature, conductivity (salinity), CDOM (colored dissolved organic matter), chlorophyll, and turbidity.  Using a data logger from Nexsens Technology Inc., and cellular telemetry, the buoys upload the collected data to this website on an hourly basis.

The Healey weather station is located on the roof of the UMass Boston Healey Library. The weather station is a Davis Vantage Pro 2 weather station that measures rainfall, air temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed, and direction.