DETECTION OF SUB-PIXEL PLASTIC ABUNDANCE ON WATER SURFACES USING AIRBORNE IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY

This work tested the practical mapping of floating plastic waste at surface area abundances between 1% - 5% using airborne imaging spectroscopy. APEX and AVIRIS-ng sensors were flown over deployed targets of known abundance during the ESA HyperSense campaign in 2018. Results show that such low abundances can be detected and mapped, while actual material identifications start to fail for abundances of 2.5% and lower.