2009 November Nor'easter
Shortly after a powerful Nor'easter hit the North Carolina Coast in mid November, the Coastal Engineering department of UNC CSI worked with The Renaissance Computing Istitute (RENCI) and Duck Rescue to gather images of some of the areas of the outer banks that were affected by the high winds and waves.  A special camera, the immersive media camera system, was used to capture 360-degree high definition images.  The camera was mounted on the roof of a Duck Surf Rescue truck and Merrick Dabrowski safely drove the beaches of Nags Head as well as some locations in Rodanthe. 

The data collected will provide an opportunity to get a complete view of the beach, berms and dunes.  The images will be spliced together providing a composite video that one can “drive through.”  This video will provide an opportunity to correlate the damages from the storm with the performance of the beach.  It will also be used to compare with ground videography, aerial photography and LIDAR data being prepared by US Geological Survey(USGS).  The creation of this video will be a major step forward in understanding coastal processes and anthropogenic opportunities.

This camera could be an invaluable tool for surveying coastal infrastructure, and documenting the influence that storms may have on its longevity. 

To see this footage, Cllick here then click the gray "Project Details" box, click "dare-county" folder