Traditionally, beach states are defined from visual observations, in-situ measurements and/or video imagery, which limits their application to a handful of well-instrumented sites. In this work, we propose a different approach by focusing on a remotely observable quantity: the cross-shore distance between the offshore wave-breaking and the shoreline position, denoted Formula: see text. This metric defines the active beach state, capturing where waves dissipate energy relative to the underlying morphology. Using 10 years of Sentinel-2 imagery, Formula: see text is evaluated across 30 wave-dominated microtidal sandy beaches spanning reflective to fully dissipative conditions. The metric reproduces the structure of classical beach state frameworks and enables classification into five active states (R, LTT, TBR/RBB, LBT, and D) using transferable thresholds. Formula: see text is continuous, thus it also reveals how beach state evolve through time, allowing quantification of state occurrence, residence time, and transitions, with seasonal variability consistent with independent classifications at well-studied sites. Furthermore, using empirical relationships, we demonstrate that Formula: see text carries first-order information about beach-face slope (Formula: see text) and sediment grain size (Formula: see text), opening a pathway toward systematic satellite-based monitoring of coastal morphodynamics at regional to global scales.
Frugier et al. (2026) studied this question.