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

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.