During the Summer of 2002, CERSER was established on the campus of Elizabeth City State University. It is the intent of CERSER to develop innovative and relevant research collaboration focused on coastal, ocean, and marine research. The project represents a joint effort by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the MU-SPIN Office of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and SeaSpace.

Using the TeraScan system, CERSER has provided remotely sensed Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and Sea Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWIFS) data for research during the summer and academic years. The 2005-2006 Remote Sensing Team has automated the process of creating AVHRR images by implementing a script that automatically processes datasets and FTPs them to the CERSER server .