What man made things on Earth can astronauts see from space?
Ask someone that question, and the most likely things you’ll here are The Great Wall of China or the Pyramids of Giza.
But new technology is allowing scientists to see garbage from space.
And the reality of that is much better than it sounds.
Researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, have developed a satellite imagery tool that can be used to identify plastic waste that has been washed up on beaches.
This expands on pre-existing technology that is already in action over our oceans, tracking the tonnes of plastic waste that has washed out to sea. With tabs on everything from bottles to fishing nets across all of our ocean, and eyes on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, scientists are already using satellites to view and monitor the continuing effects of human waste on our planet’s seas.
However, until now no technology existed to identify plastic that had washed up on beaches.
This is because the existing technology was unable to decipher the difference between trash and the sand it had washed up onto. However the new technology, which identifies the specific way in which plastics reflect light, has allowed the research team to spot garbage on remote shores from 600 km overhead.
In a statement from RMIT, lead researcher Dr Jenna Guffogg explained how the new technology will aid mankind’s war against plastic:
“While the impacts of these ocean plastics on the environment, fishing and tourism are well documented, methods for measuring the exact scale of the issue or targeting clean-up operations, sometimes most needed in remote locations, have been held back by technological limitations.”
By addressing the problems inherent in the previous technology, it is hoped that the research will aid clean-up operations all around the world.
Why is this important? Well for starters, plastic waste can have a detrimental impact on the vital ecosystems that call the ocean and the coastline their home.
In the statement, Dr Guffogg explained that as well as the growing impact of micro- and nano-plastics – which have been increasingly found in the human body too, thanks in part to our consumption of seafood – plastics waste can cause all kinds of tragic ends to our beautiful marine animals:
“Plastics can be mistaken for food, larger animals become entangled and smaller ones, like hermit crabs, become trapped inside items such as plastic containers.”
To tackle the deluge of plastic on our shores, the researchers worked with the satellite images, coming up with a mathematical formula called the Beached Plastic Debris Index (BPDI).
Set out in a recent article in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, This formula organises the patterns of reflected light on the beaches, to help scientists to pinpoint garbage and debris across thousands of high-definition images from WorldView-3.
While each image pixel equates to about three square meters, the technique was able to detect small pieces of plastic waste that researchers had planted on remote Australian beaches.
The BPDI was shown to outperform traditional satellite tools, heralding hope for conservationists and marine wildlife enthusiasts all around the world.
In the statement, RMIT’s Dr Mariela Soto-Berelov, co-author of the paper, explained the significance of the tool’s ability to differentiate plastic from water and sand:
“Detection is a key step needed for understanding where plastic debris is accumulating and planning clean-up operations.
This is incredibly exciting, as up to now we have not had a tool for detecting plastics in coastal environments from space. The beauty of satellite imagery is that it can capture large and remote areas at regular intervals.”
With researchers and conservationists working around the clock on tools and strategies to manage the ongoing desecration of our natural world, there is hope that one day, plastic-filled shores could be a thing of the past.
Regardless though, monitoring and reducing our single-use plastics is a way we can all contribute to protecting our oceans and the incredible creatures that live within them.
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.