A Polarimetric Approach to Marine Litter Detection Using GNSS-Reflectometry in a Controlled Flume

Over 14 million tons of plastic end up yearly in the ocean, originating from polluted waterways such as rivers, sewers, or storm waters, or from industrial and nautical activities with improper garbage disposal methods. Due to its long decomposition time, and the presence of currents and gyres, most of plastic debris freely floating in the ocean end up forming large extensions of marine litter known as garbage patches. An example is the Great Pacific garbage patch located in the central North Pacific Ocean covering an area larger than 1.6 million squared kilometers. Some works have recently reported the potential of GNSS-Reflectometry to detect marine plastic litter from space. This study presents the results of a controlled field experiment conducted under the auspices of ESA at the "Atlantic Basin" at the Deltares research institute (Delft, The Netherlands).