Ephemeros for
Climate Change Research
A growing, open dataset of aligned repeat photography — with the environmental metadata to make it usable.
Pick a fixed viewpoint
A “spot” is a documented frame — coordinates, compass heading and tilt — that anyone can find again.
Line up with the ghost
The previous photo floats over your camera so every capture matches the original framing exactly.
Watch change unfold
Aligned photos become a timelapse — and an open, research-grade record of how the place changes.
Repeat photography is one of the oldest tools in environmental science — and one of the hardest to do at scale. Historic comparisons usually depend on a lucky archive photo and painstaking manual registration.
Ephemeros builds the archive forward, on purpose. Every spot is a fixed, documented viewpoint with precise coordinates, compass heading and tilt. Every photo is captured in-app (no gallery imports), aligned to the spot's baseline frame, and timestamped — so the series you download is analysis-ready, not a shoebox of holiday snaps.
What makes the dataset scientifically useful
- Capture integrity. In-app camera only, with recorded location, heading, pitch and roll for every frame.
- Server-side registration. Approved photos are warped onto the spot baseline with a constrained similarity transform, and each carries an alignment score.
- Continuity. Community contributors keep series running for years — the observation network maintains itself.
Study what changes
Vegetation cover and treelines, water levels, snow persistence, coastal morphology, urban heat-island greening, phenological timing — anywhere a fixed view reveals a trend.
Data for researchers
More than pictures: every photo ships with its metadata
Alongside the aligned image series, the Ephemeros Researcher API exports the context each frame was captured in — ready for analysis, no scraping required.
Position & orientation
Precise coordinates, altitude, compass heading, pitch and roll for every spot and photo.
Meteorological context
Temperature, humidity, air pressure, cloud cover, precipitation and wind at the capture hour, matched to each photo's time and place.
Timestamps
Exact capture times — in-app camera only, so dates are trustworthy, not gallery-import guesses.
Aligned renditions
Photos registered onto each spot's baseline frame, each with an alignment quality score.
Dataset exports
Bulk ZIP exports per spot or region — original and/or aligned imagery plus a machine-readable manifest.
Moderated & attributed
Every photo is human-reviewed before publication, with content tags and contributor attribution.
See it in motion
Real spots from the Ephemeros community — each animation is built from aligned repeat photos.
Start recording change today
The best time to take the first photo was years ago. The second-best time is now — and every photo after that gets more valuable.
Spreading the word? Get the printable QR poster (PDF) for noticeboards, trailheads and meetups.
