Locating accumulations of plastic in the ocean is the first step in cleaning it up - but hunting plastic at sea is costly and resource-intensive.

Scientists are working on a new way to find these hotspots: using hyperspectral satellites to detect 'plastic fingerprints' from space. We have now published an important hyperspectral dataset in collaboration with researchers from the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Hawaii'i Pacific University, and the University of the Aegean and funded by the European Space Agency.

Hyperspectral sensors can find plastic from orbit. But how exactly does it work, and what are the challenges? Robin de Vries, Researcher at The Ocean Cleanup, talks us through it, shows how this cutting-edge dataset was collected, and explains how the dataset has been made available open-access to aid the global push to eliminate ocean plastic pollution.

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Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:26 Why use technology to detect plastic from space?
00:50 About the SPOTS (Spectral Properties Of Submerged and Biofouled Marine Plastic Litter) project - sample sets, measurement tool
02:44 Testing in the real environment:
03:49 Study outcome

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Read the study here: https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/...

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