The history and technical capabilities of Argus

Over the past 25 years, optical remote sensing has been developed into a very useful tool for sampling the nearshore environment, principally through the use of Argus Stations. However, the capabilities of such systems as scientific tools depend on an understanding of the physics of the camera as an optical sensor (including a detailed knowledge of accuracies and resolution) and of the relationship of optical signals to the geophysical signals they represent. This paper describes the components of Argus Stations with an emphasis on quantitative characterization of the accuracies and resolution of system components. Algorithms for estimation of a range of important nearshore measurements are discussed and their accuracies and ground-truth test results referenced. References to a number of key examples of Argus-based contributions to the scientific literature are cited. Since Argus technology serves as the basis for the CoastView Program, the technical capabilities described below are part of the foundation of CoastView sampling.