Sunset State Beach Video Camera 2 variance image

Two video cameras overlook the coast at Sunset State Beach in Watsonville, California. Camera 1 looks northwest while Camera 2 looks north. Every half hour during daylight hours, the cameras collect snapshots and video for 10 minutes. The various imagery collected:

• Snapshot: first frame of the video, just like a standard photo
• Timex (time-exposure): time-averaged image of all frames over 10 minutes smooths away surface waves and helps determine the location of persistent wave-breaking (indicative of shallow sandbars)
• Variance Image: standard deviation of pixel intensity throughout the video frames, useful for determining how much variation or movement is occurring at a given location
• Bright Image: brightest pixel values at each location throughout the video, useful to identify the position of maximum wave run-up on the beach, position of all breaking waves, and sea-state
• Dark Image: darkest pixel values at each location throughout the video, useful for tracking sediment plumes, tracking floating debris, and filtering out breaking waves