Proof of concept for a new sensor to monitor marine litter from space

Andrés Cózar (), Manuel Arias (), Giuseppe Suaria, Josué Viejo, Stefano Aliani, Aristeidis Koutroulis, James Delaney, Guillaume Bonnery, Diego Macías, Robin Vries, Romain Sumerot, Carmen Morales-Caselles, Antonio Turiel, Daniel González-Fernández and Paolo Corradi
Additional contact information
Andrés Cózar: Universidad de Cádiz and European University of the Seas (SEA-EU)
Manuel Arias: Barcelona Expert Center
Giuseppe Suaria: Istituto di Scienze Marine - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (ISMAR-CNR)
Josué Viejo: Universidad de Cádiz and European University of the Seas (SEA-EU)
Stefano Aliani: Istituto di Scienze Marine - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (ISMAR-CNR)
Aristeidis Koutroulis: School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering
James Delaney: ARGANS Ltd.
Guillaume Bonnery: Airbus Defence and Space
Diego Macías: Joint Research Centre
Robin Vries: The Ocean Cleanup
Romain Sumerot: ACRI-ST
Carmen Morales-Caselles: Universidad de Cádiz and European University of the Seas (SEA-EU)
Antonio Turiel: Barcelona Expert Center
Daniel González-Fernández: Universidad de Cádiz and European University of the Seas (SEA-EU)
Paolo Corradi: European Space Agency - ESTEC

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Worldwide, governments are implementing strategies to combat marine litter. However, their effectiveness is largely unknown because we lack tools to systematically monitor marine litter over broad spatio-temporal scales. Metre-sized aggregations of floating debris generated by sea-surface convergence lines have been reported as a reliable target for detection from satellites. Yet, the usefulness of such ephemeral, scattered aggregations as proxy for sustained, large-scale monitoring of marine litter remains an open question for a dedicated Earth-Observation mission. Here, we track this proxy over a series of 300,000 satellite images of the entire Mediterranean Sea. The proxy is mainly related to recent inputs from land-based litter sources. Despite the limitations of in-orbit technology, satellite detections are sufficient to map hot-spots and capture trends, providing an unprecedented source-to-sink view of the marine litter phenomenon. Torrential rains largely control marine litter inputs, while coastal boundary currents and wind-driven surface sweep arise as key drivers for its distribution over the ocean. Satellite-based monitoring proves to be a real game changer for marine litter research and management. Furthermore, the development of an ad-hoc sensor can lower the minimum detectable concentration by one order of magnitude, ensuring operational monitoring, at least for seasonal-to-interannual variability in the mesoscale.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48674-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-48674-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48674-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().