Capabilities
Capabilities
The USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center conducts integrated mapping of the coastal and ocean environment to define hazards and sediment processes, to support habitat and resource management, and to monitor change. PCMSC is an innovator in mapping, laboratory analyses, and field techniques, whose expertise is sought by other governmental agencies, educational institutions, and private co
PCMSC Marine Facility
PCMSC Marine Facility
“MarFac” provides engineering, mechanical, and electronics expertise for our field operations.
Field Equipment
Field Equipment
Learn about the wide array of field equipment and capabilities at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center Marine Facility.
Laboratories
Laboratories
Learn all about our state-of-the-art laboratories at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California.
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Remote Sensing Coastal Change
We use remote-sensing technologies—such as aerial photography, satellite imagery, structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry, and lidar (laser-based surveying)—to measure coastal change along U.S. shorelines.
SQUID-5 camera system
The SQUID-5 is a S tructure-from-Motion Q uantitative U nderwater I maging D evice with 5 cameras.
PCMSC MarFac Field Equipment and Capabilities
Learn about the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center Marine Facility’s vast array of field equipment, sampling devices, and mapping systems, and our capabilities. Our engineers, designers, mechanics, and technicians have also designed and developed some of the specialized field equipment we use in field operations in the nearshore, in the deep sea, and on land.
Using Video Imagery to Study Coastal Change: Santa Cruz Beaches
Two video cameras atop the Dream Inn hotel in Santa Cruz, California, overlook the coast in northern Monterey Bay. One camera looks eastward over Santa Cruz Main Beach and boardwalk, while the other looks southward over Cowells Beach.
USGS vessel Fast Eddy
USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center's vessel Fast Eddy
PS-CoSMoS: Puget Sound Coastal Storm Modeling System
The CoSMoS model is currently available for most of the California coast and is now being expanded to support the 4.5 million coastal residents of the Puget Sound region, with emphasis on the communities bordering the sound.
Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS)
The Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) makes detailed predictions of storm-induced coastal flooding, erosion, and cliff failures over large geographic scales. CoSMoS was developed for hindcast studies, operational applications and future climate scenarios to provide emergency responders and coastal planners with critical storm-hazards information that can be used to increase public safety...
Global Geoengineering Research
The Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center geotechnical group investigates the causes of ground deformation and ground failure as a result of earthquakes, storms, and wave action
Using Video Imagery to Study Wave Dynamics: Unalakleet
USGS scientists installed two video cameras atop a windmill tower in Unalakleet, Alaska, pointing westward over Norton Sound, to observe and quantify coastal processes such as wave run-up, development of rip channels, bluff erosion, and movement of sandbars and ice floes.
Using Video Imagery to Study Coastal Change: Sunset State Beach
Two video cameras overlook the coast at Sunset State Beach in Watsonville, California. Camera 1 looks northwest while Camera 2 looks north. The cameras are part of the Remote Sensing Coastal Change project.
Using Video Imagery to Study Wave Dynamics: Tres Palmas
To study wave dynamics along an active coastline, video cameras were installed on the west coast of Puerto Rico at Tres Palmas in Rincón.
PCMSC Marine Facility (MarFac)
Learn about the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center Marine Facility, or MarFac