Monitoring marine plastic pollution requires repeated, long-term, global and harmonised observations of plastic presence, quantity and type, which satellites can provide. To convince space agencies to take action, coordinated activities are urgently needed to agree on target environments and to integrate in situ and satellite-derived measurements.
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks the Task Force on Marine Litter, specifically Core Topic 1 Technology members, for their discussions, and K. Flynn for feedback on an early version of the Comment. Ideas for this Comment originated while preparing for the side events at the UN Ocean conference in Lisbon in June 2022 organised by International Atomic Energy Agency, in the frame of Nuclear Technology for controlling plastic pollution (NUTEC plastics) initiative, and by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) in the frame of the International Marine Debris Observing System (IMDOS) initiative. The author is funded by Discovery Element of the European Space Agency’s Basic Activities (4000132212/20/NL/GLC) and EO Science for Society Open Call (40000123928/18/I-NB).
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Martinez-Vicente, V. The need for a dedicated marine plastic litter satellite mission. Nat Rev Earth Environ 3, 728–729 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00360-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00360-2
