The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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There is an urgent need to assess the levels of plastic pollution in the ocean, to allow for future monitoring and to determine the efficacy of any attempted remediation. As a consequence, parallel to in situ observations, there is a growing interest in detecting marine debris using remote sensing satellite and uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery.
For the second year in a row, the Marine Remote Sensing Group at the University of the Aegean ran the Plastic Litter Project (PLP), which is a calibration/validation project for detecting artificial plastic targets on the sea surface using Copernicus Sentinel satellite and UAV images. Find out more about the project here.
The project was funded through the Discovery element of ESA’s Basic Activities. It was selected through an Open Space Innovation Platform (OSIP) call for ideas on remote sensing of plastic marine litter.
Access the other Final presentations of ESA Discovery element activities videos.