An Experimental Campaign to Observe Floating Plastic Using a Multi-Sensor Strategy

This study is to describe the aggregated platic experiment carried out in July 2024 in the framework of the Italian Ministry of Research (MUR) funded project ECOMARE. The experiment is about the observation of aggregated plastic targets deployed in a South Italy lake using drone-based optical sensors and collocated satellite X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery acquired by the Italian Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation (CSG) constellation using the very high resolution dual-polarimetric SpotLight mode. Experimental results show that the aggregated plastic results in a well-distinguishable signature in the optical imagery that makes them distinguishable from natural floating debris. Non-negligible hints of signals associated to the floating plastic appear also in both the co- and the cross-polarized channels of the CSG SAR scene.