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Low-altitude aerial imagery collected from a Helikite at Head of the Meadow Beach, Truro, MA on March 20, 2024

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Metadata Last Checked: July 16, 2025 | Last Modified: 20240530
The data in this release re-map the beach and nearshore environment at Head of the Meadow Beach in Truro, MA and provide updated environmental context for the 2020 CoastCam installation that looks out at the coast shared by beachgoers, shorebirds, seals, and sharks. This is a collaboration with the National Park Service at Cape Cod National Seashore to monitor the region that falls within the field of view of CoastCam CACO-01, which are two video cameras aimed at the beach. In February and March 2024, U.S. Geological Survey and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists conducted field surveys to collect topographic and bathymetric data. Images of the beach for use in structure-from-motion were taken with a camera (SONY a6000) attached to a helium powered balloon-kite (Helikite). High-precision GPS targets (AeroPoints) were used as ground control points. Bathymetry was collected in the nearshore using a single-beam echosounder mounted on a surf capable self-righting electric autonomous surface vehicle. Agisoft Metashape (v. 2.1.0) was used to create a digital surface model and orthomosaic with the collected imagery.

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