Ephemeros for
Coastline & Shoreline Shifts
Erosion, accretion and storm damage, captured from fixed viewpoints along the shore.
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.
Coastlines move — by centimetres a year or by metres in a single storm. Satellite imagery sees the broad strokes; what it misses is the ground-level story: the dune scarp cutting back, the beach profile flattening, the revetment slowly undermined.
Ephemeros spots along a shoreline become fixed monitoring stations that anyone can service with a phone. The ghost overlay reproduces the exact framing every time, so successive photos are directly comparable — and the timelapse makes decades of slow retreat readable in seconds.
Where shoreline spots shine
- Dune fronts and beach profiles — seasonal cut-and-fill and long-term retreat.
- Cliff edges — episodic collapse that interval photography catches and memory doesn't.
- Estuary mouths and sand spits — some of the fastest-moving landforms there are.
- Sea defences — the slow lean of a failing groyne, documented frame by frame.
Storm events matter most: a spot photographed before and after a big blow is worth a season of surveys. Local walkers, surf clubs and coastal-watch groups make ideal contributors.
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.
