Microplastic Monitoring Using Combination of FTIR with Multispectral and Sentinel SAR Remote Sensing

The microplastic has caused significant threat to marine ecosystem. The amount of microplastic has reached approximately 270.000 tonnes. However, it is difficult to characterize microplastic especially in dense mangrove forests. To cope this problem, this research try to combine the use of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) combined with Sentinel Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and multispectral remote sensing. In the sampling sites, plastic debris were extracted and analyzed using FTIR. Simultaneously, Sentinel SAR and multispectral were used to capture the satellite imagery of related sites. Based on the result, FTIR analysis able to characterize the presence of polyethylene and polypropylene with wavenumber of 3000-2700 cm -1 . Likewise, the result of Sentinel SAR remote sensing shows presence of microplastic in the water. The microplastics were characterized by appearance of dark areas. These black patches are accumulated in the water and can be distinguished by its linear or circular patterns. The location of patches is remote and solitary in the middle of the water body.  The black patches have negative correlation with the anthropogenic activity and chlorophyll-a but have positive correlation with the microbial activity.  For multispectral image, the wavelength of 650 nm, 550 nm and 450 for Red Green Blue compositions was able to identify microplastic entities. To conclude, the presence of microplastics in ocean can be detected earlier by using combination of FTIR with Sentinel SAR and multispectral remote sensing.