%0 Journal Article 
%A Cózar Cabañas, Andrés
%A Arias, M.
%A Suaria, G.
%A Viejo Marín, Josué
%A Aliani, S.
%A Koutroulis, A.
%A Delaney, J.
%A Bonnery, G.
%A Macías, D.
%A de Vries, R
%A Sumerot, R.
%A Morales Caselles, María del Carmen
%A Turiel, A.
%A González Fernández, Daniel
%A Corradi, P.
%T Proof of concept for a new sensor to monitor marine litter from space
%D 2024
%@ 2041-1723
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10498/33678
%X 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.
%~ Universidad de Cádiz