A new buoy recently placed at the mouth of the York River will help fill a gap in a Chesapeake Bay weather observation network.

Researchers with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, assisted with the launch of the new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoy that’s part of the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System, or CBIBS.

CBIBS is a network of 10 observation buoys that mark points along the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. The latest buoy is placed in 30 feet of water at the mouth of the York River about 12 miles downstream from the VIMS campus, according to VIMS spokesman David Malmquist.

The buoys merge cell phone and internet technology to record and transmit a wealth of real-time data, including wind speed, water and air temperature, wave height, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and chlorophyll levels, a VIMS release said.

Boaters, anglers, scientists and other users can access the data via a smartphone ap...