Using Ground Radar Measurements to Measure Plastisphere-Based Surfactant Dampening

Directly remote sensing plastic pollution within the open ocean has proven to be challenging. Therefore, other methods of detecting marine plastics through a proxy should be explored. Radar satellites are sensitive to surface roughness and can therefore detect dampening of wind-driven capillary waves on the sea surface. Plastics within the ocean have been found to be colonized by microbes, which can produce surfactants, substances which can dampen the short capillary waves on the ocean. This research investigates whether a ground radar instrument is capable of detecting plastisphere-based surfactant dampening within a semi-natural environment setting. We find that we can observe reduced backscatter from dampening effects that are occurring within our experiment setting. We also find that the backscattering from experiments involving plastisphere-based surfactants are significantly different from control experiments where microbial production is stopped.