RT journal article
T1 Proof of concept for a new sensor to monitor marine litter from space
A1 Cózar Cabañas, Andrés
A1 Arias, M.
A1 Suaria, G.
A1 Viejo Marín, Josué
A1 Aliani, S.
A1 Koutroulis, A.
A1 Delaney, J.
A1 Bonnery, G.
A1 Macías, D.
A1 de Vries, R
A1 Sumerot, R.
A1 Morales Caselles, María del Carmen
A1 Turiel, A.
A1 González Fernández, Daniel
A1 Corradi, P.
A2 Biología
AB 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.
PB Nature Research
SN 2041-1723
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/33678
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/33678
LA eng
NO Junta de Andalucía (Spain) Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain)  European Commission (European Union) Universidad de Cádiz (Spain) Ocean+ European Space Agency (France) EMME
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 07-nov-2026