Established in 1977, the Field Research Facility supports the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers coastal engineering mission and is recognized as one of the world’s leading places for coastal field studies. Operated by a twelve-person staff, it centers on a research pier, shore facilities, an observation tower, and specialized vehicles including the CRAB, which uses centimeter-level GPS to survey to -9 m (-30 ft) depth and provide long-term, consistent measurements of beach change, and the LARC, a four-wheel-drive amphibious craft used for instrument deployments, dive operations, and geophysical and hydrographic surveys. Its concrete and steel pier extends 561 m (1840 ft) into the ocean, and the Sensor Insertion System mounted on it uses wave gauges, current meters, and sediment transport sensors to collect measurements, including previously unobtainable data on sand movement during major storms. The observation tower supports radio antennae and eight video cameras, and work with Oregon State University scientists has developed techniques for deriving ocean measurements from images, including tracking offshore sandbar movement before and after hurricanes. The facility’s measurement program records wind, atmospheric conditions, waves, tides, currents, bathymetry, water properties, aerial photography, and hourly video imagery, while a fifteen-sensor array installed in 1986 in 8-m (26 ft) water measures directional waves with exceptional accuracy and longevity. Research there examines how wave height and direction control beach erosion and sediment transport, including real-time storm measurements of bottom changes, and the data collected have drawn many outside groups and supported U.S. Army Corps of Engineers work from New York to California, including mapping at Oregon Inlet. As a branch of the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory of the U.S. Army’s Engineer Research and Development Center, the facility has hosted major nearshore experiments such as DELILAH in 1990, DUCK94, SUPERDUCK, and SandyDuck in 1997, expanding understanding of surf-zone waves, currents, and sandbar shifts and helping improve environmentally friendly, cost-effective coastal projects as well as armed forces wartime and humanitarian operations where ocean meets land.