Wired Pier Environmental Field Station

What Is the
Wired Pier?

The Wired Pier is an array of sensitive instruments around the Exploratorium campus at Piers 15 and 17, measuring and recording conditions in the environment—the weather, Bay water, pollution, and more. We're displaying the live data on this website and in the Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery. We're also archiving the data so that the public and our scientific partners can explore patterns and trends in the atmosphere, oceans, and urban landscape.

Webcam image from Pier 15
BAY OBSERVATORY ROOFCAM Fri, 21 Feb 2020 21:11:51 GMT

Data Explorer

The Data Explorer lets you examine our environmental data archive. Compare different types of measurements—such as rainfall, water temperature, or carbon dioxide—and see what you can discover.

Explore the data
Current Conditions     More current conditions
Air Temperature
63.9 °F
17.7 °C
Air Pressure
30.01 in Hg
1016 mb
Relative Humidity
32.3 %
Dew Point
33.7 °F
0.9 °C
Rain
0 in
Winds
NW 6.1 mph
2.7 m/sec
Atmospheric CO2
424.8 ppm
Water Temp
52.7 °F
11.5 °C
Tidal Water Depth
0.89 ft
0.27 m
Salinity
22.2 PSU
 

Data Story: Tide Cycles at Pier 15

You’ve seen high and low tides at the beach. Get to know the daily and monthly cycles of the tides, why they change every day, and how they affect San Francisco Bay.

Explore the story

Data Story: Tides and Salinity

See how the salinity, or saltiness, of Bay water rises and falls with the tides, and what many years of salinity data reveals about California’s climate.

Explore the story

Activities with Data

Learn more about the natural processes behind the numbers. These do-it-yourself activities let you try things like building a device to measure the saltiness of water, or learning about the link between gravity and tides.

Explore data activities

Upcoming Events

There's always something interesting happening here—check out our ongoing events.

Data Story: Bay Water Temperature + Salinity + Tides

Can you predict when Bay water will be at its warmest? Or coldest? You can if you take a look at some graphs from our Data Explorer.

Explore the story

Why Collect Data?

See how our data collection supports scientific data networks and research, and helps educate students and the public.

Learn why we collect data

Sensors and Locations

Check out a bird’s-eye view of our piers and see where our field station sensors are and what kinds of data they’re gathering.

Explore the sensor map

Visiting Ships

The Exploratorium periodically hosts ocean research and exploration vessels at Pier 17.

Learn about visiting ships

Latest blog updates

NOAA PMEL carbon buoy
Science and the Federal Shutdown

by Mary Miller • January 18, 2019

We love our science agencies and the dedicated public servants who work for the American public, we’re feeling their absence in small and large ways.

Read more...


Waves of Data for Maverick’s Surf Competition

by Mary Miller • February 1, 2018

Surfers for the Maverick’s surf competition near San Francisco are pinning their hopes on Pacific storms, lots of data and some well-honed algorithms.

Read more...


Smoky air creates vivid sunrise in the Bay Area.
With Fall Comes Easterly Winds, Fires and Smoke in Northern California

by Mary Miller • October 18, 2017

Fall, not summer, is fire season in California. The aftermath of rainless but foggy summers and a shift in the winds that normally bring cool, moist air from the Pacific but instead blow from the dry, warm interior create the perfect recipe for fires. That weather pattern exploded this October into deadly wildfires that affected air quality all over the Bay Area. 

 

Read more...