BEACH AND NEARSHORE SURVEY DATA: 1981-1984 

 CERC FIELD RESEARCH FACILITY 



PART I: INTRODUCTION 



1. The Field Research Facility (FRF) of the US Army Engineer Waterways 

 Experiment Station (WES), Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC), was 

 established to provide a research and development capability for field studies 

 of coastal processes. An important part of the FRF operation has been the 

 collection of long-term data sets of waves, currents, tides, atmospheric 

 conditions, and beach profile change. The purpose of this report is to pre- 

 sent the first 4 years of highly accurate profile data collected under the 

 Storm Erosion Studies work unit. 



2. This continuing data set is unique in the field of beach profile 

 studies because of its accuracy, temporal coverage, and concomitant wave, 

 weather, and water-level information. Surveys of four shore-normal profile 

 lines were completed at approximately 2-week intervals. Nowhere else does 

 such a data set exist. It provides a unique opportunity to examine natural 

 profile changes and to test and evaluate models of beach profile response to 

 changing wave, current, and atmospheric conditions. 



3. The FRF is located just north of the village of Duck, N. C. , on the 

 Outer Banks (Figure 1). The facility includes a 561-m-long research pier and 

 support buildings. The beach adjacent to the study area is interrupted only 

 by open pile piers from Cape Henry, Va. , to Oregon Inlet, N. C, a distance of 

 110 km. General information regarding the FRF and the surrounding area is 

 provided in Birkemeier et al. (1985). A comprehensive network of weather and 

 ocean sensors provides continuous monitoring of atmospheric and oceanographic 

 conditions. These data are published in a series of annual (Miller 1984; 

 Miller et al. 1985, 1986) and monthly data reports. 



4. The data in this report were collected along the four profile lines 

 shown in Figure 2 (Lines 58, 62, 188, and 190). A profile line is defined as 

 a fixed transect across the beach and nearshore which is repetitively 

 surveyed. Table 1 summarizes the location of these lines and the data con- 

 tained in this report. Based on regular monthly surveys of the bathymetry 



