Image: Marek Ślusarczyk (Tupungato) ( CC BY 3.0 )
What it is
A 2024 peer-reviewed proof that Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery, searched at Mediterranean scale (about 300,000 scenes), can detect floating litter windrows as proxies for marine litter inputs and pathways. The work was led with ESA contracts and reported with EU Joint Research Centre participation.
Problem it targets
Plastic and other floating litter move across whole seas, but managers still lack basin-scale maps of where dense windrows form and when land spills surge.
How it works
Algorithms flag bright, elongated convergence features on 10 m optical bands. Detections are matched to hydrology and coastal runoff models. Torrential rain and coastal currents emerge as key drivers of when and where litter aggregates.
Status and players
Research and pre-operational monitoring over the Mediterranean historical archive (the paper’s analysis window is 2015-2021). The JRC public note of 14 June 2024 frames the result as a shift for policy monitoring, not a cleanup vessel.
Risks and limits
Today’s sensors need dense, metre-scale aggregations (windrows). Scattered microplastics stay invisible. Cloudy scenes and look-alikes (foam, sargassum) need careful filtering. This paper is not a global operational plastic map. Dedicated litter sensors that could lower the detection floor are not yet routine operations.
Sources
Cózar et al., Nature Communications (2024); EU JRC news, 14 June 2024; ESA Copernicus Sentinel-2. Mediterranean windrows, not a global operational map.