Using Video Imagery to Study Coastal Change: Santa Cruz Beaches
Science Center Objects
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. The cameras are part of the Remote Sensing Coastal Change project.
Every half hour during daylight hours, the cameras collect snapshots and video for 10 minutes. Today’s most recent images are shown below. Please note that it takes 10 minutes for the images to be posted, once they are collected by the camera.
Currently, video cameras are installed at these locations:
- Dream Inn hotel in Santa Cruz, California;
- Sunset State Beach in Santa Cruz, California;
- Tres Palmas in Rincón, Puerto Rico;
- Unalakleet, Alaska; and
- Whidbey Island, Washington.
These and other images are used to remotely sense a range of processes, including:
- shoreline position,
- sandbar migration,
- rip-channel formation,
- wave run-up on the beach,
- alongshore current, and
- nearshore bathymetry.
Snapshots
The snapshot is the first frame of the video, just like a standard photo.
Main Beach Snapshot, looking eastward
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Cowells Beach Snapshot, looking southward
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Timex (time-exposure) images
A timex is a time-averaged image of all frames, smoothing away surface waves and determining the location of persistent wave-breaking (indicative of shallow sandbars).
Main Beach Timex, looking eastward
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Cowells Beach Timex, looking southward
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Variance images
A “variance” image shows the standard deviation of pixel intensity throughout the video, and it is useful for determining how much variation or movement is occurring at a given location.
Main Beach Variance Image, looking eastward
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Cowells Beach Variance Image, looking southward
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Bright images
A “bright” image shows the brightest pixel values throughout the video, useful for identifying the position of maximum wave run-up on the beach, position of all breaking waves, and sea-state.
Main Beach Bright Image, looking eastward
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Cowells Beach Bright Image, looking southward
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Dark images
A “dark” image shows the darkest pixel values throughout the video, useful for tracking sediment plumes, tracking floating debris, and filtering out breaking waves.
Main Beach Dark Image, looking eastward
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Cowells Beach Dark Image, looking southward
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USGS ocean engineer Gerry Hatcher (left) and USGS postdoctoral oceanographer Shawn Harrison make adjustments to a computer controlling two video cameras on the roof of the Dream Inn, a 10-story hotel overlooking Monterey Bay in Santa Cruz, California.
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Date published: June 1, 2018Status: ActiveRemote Sensing Coastal Change
We use remote-sensing technologies—such as aerial photography, satellite imagery, and lidar (laser-based surveying)—to measure coastal change along U.S. shorelines.
Contacts: Jonathan Warrick
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Date published: November 8, 2019Status: ActiveUsing Video Imagery to Study Coastal Change: Whidbey Island
Video cameras overlook the coast along a beach on Whidbey Island, Island County at the northern boundary of Puget Sound in western Washington.
Contacts: Eric Grossman -
Date published: September 19, 2019Status: ActiveUsing 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.
Contacts: Jonathan Warrick -
Date published: August 28, 2019Status: ActiveUsing Video Imagery to Study Wave Dynamics: Unalakleet
Two video cameras overlook the coast from atop a windmill tower in Unalakleet, Alaska where they look westward over Norton Sound.
Contacts: Ann Gibbs, Li Erikson -
Date published: July 25, 2019Status: ActiveUsing 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. The cameras are part of the Remote Sensing Coastal Change project.
Contacts: Jonathan Warrick -
Date published: July 22, 2019Status: ActiveUsing Video Imagery to Study Wave Dynamics: Tres Palmas
Four video cameras look westward over the coast and the coral reef at Tres Palmas in Rincón, on the west coast of Puerto Rico. Two cameras look out at the horizon and over the ocean for the mid-field view; one camera offers a zoomed-in, far-field view overlooking the reef and out to the island of Desecheo, a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge; and another camera focuses on the beach.
Contacts: Curt Storlazzi, Miguel Canals-Silander, Patricia Chardon Maldonado -
Date published: March 29, 2018Status: ActiveClimate check in our Santa Cruz backyard
For a beach town like Santa Cruz, preserving beaches by mitigating coastal erosion is vital. Surveys conducted now and regularly in the future will help scientists understand the short- and long-term impacts of climate change, El Niño years, and sea-level rise on a populated and vulnerable coastline.
Contacts: Patrick Barnard, Jonathan Warrick
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Date published: November 8, 2017Eyes on the Coast—Video Cameras Help Forecast Coastal Change
Coastal communities count on beaches for recreation and for protection from large waves, but beaches are vulnerable to threats such as erosion by storms and flooding. Whether beaches grow, shrink, or even disappear depends in part on what happens just offshore. How do features like shifting sandbars affect waves, currents, and the movement of sand from the beach to offshore and back?