Stannard Rock

Latitude: 45°50'32" N
Longitude: 85°8'7" W
Site Elevation: 183 meters above sea level

Stannard Rock Light is located 44 miles NNE of Marquette, Michigan and 24 miles ESE of Manitou Island. It was completed in 1883 after five years of work costing $305,000 on a reef that was deemed the most serious hazard to navigation on Lake Superior. The light was automated in 1962, and the United States Coast Guard still maintains it as an active aid to navigation. Stannard Rock Light is currently owned by the Superior Watershed Partnership and is the most distant lighthouse from shore in the United States.

Led by Dr. Chris Spence of Environment and Climate Change Canada, an eddy covariance station was placed atop Stannard Rock Light in 2008. The eddy covariance station along with other ancillary meteorological instrumentation is located at an approximate elevaation of 32.5 meters above lake level. Meteorological data from the lighthouse are sent to the National Data Buoy Center, where they can be viewed in real-time at http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=stdm4