Журнал

About Editorial Board Information for authors and reviewers Publication ethics Contacts User Account: send / review a manuscript
Archive
Volume 22, 2025
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5 Number 6
Volume 21, 2024
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5 Number 6
Volume 20, 2023
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5 Number 6
Volume 19, 2022
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5 Number 6
Volume 18, 2021
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5 Number 6
Volume 17, 2020
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5 Number 6 Number 7
Volume 16, 2019
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5 Number 6
Volume 15, 2018
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5 Number 6 Number 7
Volume 14, 2017
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5 Number 6 Number 7
Volume 13, 2016
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5 Number 6
Volume 12, 2015
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5 Number 6
Volume 11, 2014
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4
Volume 10, 2013
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4
Volume 9, 2012
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5
Volume 8, 2011
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4
Volume 7, 2010
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4
Issue 6, 2009
Volume 1 Volume 2
Issue 5, 2008
Volume 1 Volume 2
Issue 4, 2007
Volume 1 Volume 2
Issue 3, 2006
Volume 1 Volume 2
Issue 2, 2005
Volume 1 Volume 2
Issue 1, 2004
Volume 1
Search
Find:
русский
ISSN 2070-7401 (Print), ISSN 2411-0280 (Online)
Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa
CURRENT PROBLEMS IN REMOTE SENSING OF THE EARTH FROM SPACE

  

Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2025, V. 22, No. 6, pp. 274-284

Possibilities of using spectral indices for plastic debris identification in satellite multispectral ocean images

O.A. Danilicheva 1 , S.A. Ermakov 1, 2 
1 Institute of Applied Physics RAS, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
2 Volga State University of Water Transport, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Accepted: 29.09.2025
DOI: 10.21046/2070-7401-2025-22-6-274-284
The paper presents a comparative analysis of existing spectral indices obtained from satellite multispectral images of the ocean surface and inland waters in order to identify the most effective ones for detecting floating ocean plastic debris. The analysis is based on satellite multispectral observations of plastic debris from the Sentinel-2 satellite presented in the literature during controlled in situ experiments. In addition to comparing the indices with each other in the task of detecting plastic debris, the possibility of distinguishing plastic debris from other surface contaminants, such as wooden fragments, thick biogenic films (sargassum algae, phytoplankton), marine mucilage, oil, etc., is also considered. For the Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument (MSI) multispectral images, widely used spectral indices were calculated, namely, Floating Debris Index (FDI), Floating Algae Index (FAI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Plastic Index (PI). It is shown that, among the indices, the FAI, rather than the PI, is the most effective for diagnosing plastic debris zones on the water surface. It is noted that the FAI, however, does not allow for unambiguous identification of plastic debris against the background of certain pollution, such as oil, which requires further development of the principles of diagnosing plastic debris in the ocean.
Keywords: plastic debris, water surface, satellite images, multispectral data, Sentinel-2, spectral indices
Full text

References:

  1. Danilicheva O. A., Ermakov S. A., On biogenic films manifestations in satellite multispectral images of eutrophic water bodies, Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2023, V. 20, No. 5, pp. 273–284 (in Russian), DOI: 10.21046/2070-7401-2023-20-5-273-284.
  2. Ermakov S. A., Vliyanie plenok na dinamiku gravitatsionno-kapillyarnykh voln (Impact of films on the dynamics of gravity-capillary waves), N. Novgorod: IPF RAN, 2010, 164 p. (in Russian).
  3. Lavrova O. Yu., Mityagina M. I., Kostianoy A. G., Sputnikovye metody vyyavleniya i monitoringa zon ehkologicheskogo riska morskikh akvatorii (Satellite methods for detection and monitoring marine zones of ecological risks), Moscow: IKI RAS, 2016, 336 p. (in Russian).
  4. Basu B., Sannigrahi S., Sarkar Basu A., Pilla F., Development of novel classification algorithms for detection of floating plastic debris in coastal waterbodies using multispectral Sentinel-2 remote sensing imagery, Remote Sensing, 2021, V. 13, No. 8, Article 1598, DOI: 10.3390/rs13081598.
  5. Biermann L., Clewley D., Martinez-Vicente V., Topouzelis K., Finding plastic patches in coastal waters using optical satellite data, Scientific Reports, 2020, V. 10, Article 5364, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-62298-z.
  6. Carlson D. F., Suaria G., Aliani S. et al., Combining litter observations with a regional ocean model to identify sources and sinks of floating debris in a semi-enclosed basin: the Adriatic Sea, Frontiers in Marine Science, 2017, V. 4, Article 78, DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00078.
  7. Chu S., Wang J., Leong G. et al., Perfluoroalkyl sulfonates and carboxylic acids in liver, muscle and adipose tissues of black-footed albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) from Midway Island, North Pacific Ocean, Chemosphere, 2015, V. 138, pp. 60–66, DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.05.043.
  8. Colkesen I., Kavzoglu T., Sefercik U. G., Ozturk M. Y., Automated mucilage extraction index (AMEI): a novel spectral water index for identifying marine mucilage formations from Sentinel-2 imagery, Intern. J. Remote Sensing, 2023, V. 44, No. 1, pp. 105–141, DOI: 10.1080/01431161.2022.2158049.
  9. D’Ugo E., Kallikkattilkuruvila A., Giuseppetti R. et al., A Sentinel-2-based system to detect and monitor oil spills: Demonstration on 2024 Tobago accident, Remote Sensing, 2025, V. 17, No. 2, Article 230, DOI: 10.3390/rs17020230.
  10. Derraik J. G. B., The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris: a review, Marine Pollution Bull., 2002, V. 44, No. 9, pp. 842–852, DOI: 10.1016/S0025-326X(02)00220-5.
  11. Garaba S. P., Harmel T., Top-of-atmosphere hyper and multispectral signatures of submerged plastic litter with changing water clarity and depth, Optics Express, 2022, V. 30, No. 10, pp. 16553–16571, DOI: 10.1364/OE.451415.
  12. Garaba S. P., Aitken J., Slat B. et al., Sensing ocean plastics with an airborne hyperspectral shortwave infrared imager, Environmental Science and Technology, 2018, V. 52, No. 20, pp. 11699–11707, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b02855.
  13. Goddijn-Murphy L., Peters S., van Sebille E. et al., Concept for a hyperspectral remote sensing algorithm for floating marine macro plastics, Marine Pollution Bull., 2018, V. 126, pp. 255–262, DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.11.011.
  14. Hernández-Nuñez H., Euán-Avila J. I., Velocity of Sargassum migration in the Caribbean observed with Landsat 8/9 and Sentinel 2 A/B imagery, PLoS ONE, 2025, V. 20, No. 3, Article e0319391, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0319391.
  15. Hu C., A novel ocean color index to detect floating algae in the global oceans, Remote Sensing of Environment, 2009, V. 113, No. 10, pp. 2118–2129, DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2009.05.012.
  16. Kikaki K., Kakogeorgiou I., Mikeli P. et al., MARIDA: A benchmark for Marine Debris detection from Sentinel-2 remote sensing data, PLoS ONE, 2022, V. 17, No. 1, Article e0262247, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262247.
  17. Knaeps E., Sterckx S., Strackx G. et al., Hyperspectral-reflectance dataset of dry, wet and submerged marine litter, Earth System Science Data, 2021, V. 13, No. 2, pp. 713–730, DOI: 10.5194/essd-13-713-2021.
  18. Konik M., Bradtke K., Stoń-Egiert J. et al., Cyanobacteria index as a tool for the satellite detection of cyanobacteria blooms in the Baltic Sea, Remote Sensing, 2023, V. 15, No. 6, Article 1601, DOI: 10.3390/rs15061601.
  19. Kremezi M., Kristollari V., Karathanassi V. et al., Pansharpening PRISMA data for marine plastic litter detection using plastic indexes, IEEE Access, 2021, V. 9, pp. 61955–61971, DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3073903.
  20. Kremezi M., Kristollari V., Karathanassi V. et al., Increasing the Sentinel-2 potential for marine plastic litter monitoring through image fusion techniques, Marine Pollution Bull., 2022, V. 182, Article 113974, DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113974.
  21. Kwon B. G., Koizumi K., Chung S.-Y. et al., Global styrene oligomers monitoring as new chemical contamination from polystyrene plastic marine pollution, J. Hazardous Materials, 2015, V. 300, pp. 359–367, DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2015.07.039.
  22. Lebreton L., Slat B., Ferrari F. et al., Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic, Scientific Reports, 2018, V. 8, Article 4666, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-22939-w.
  23. Majidi Nezhad M., Groppi D., Laneve G. et al., Oil spill detection analyzing “Sentinel 2” satellite images: A Persian Gulf case study, Proc. 3 rd World Congress on Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering (CSEE’18), 2018, Article AWSPT 134, 8 p., DOI: 10.11159/awspt18.134.
  24. Mikeli P., Kikaki K., Kakogeorgiou I., Karantzalos K., How challenging is the discrimination of floating materials on the sea surface using high resolution multispectral satellite data?, Intern. Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2022, V. XLIII-B3-2022, pp. 151–157, DOI: 10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIII-B3-2022-151-2022.
  25. Möhlenkamp P., Purser A., Thomsen L., Plastic microbeads from cosmetic products: an experimental study of their hydrodynamic behaviour, vertical transport and resuspension in phytoplankton and sediment aggregates, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 2018, V. 6, Article 61, DOI: 10.1525/elementa.317.
  26. Moshtaghi M., Knaeps E., Sterckx S. et al., Spectral reflectance of marine macroplastics in the VNIR and SWIR measured in a controlled environment, Scientific Reports, 2021, V. 11, Article 5436, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-84867-6.
  27. Ody A., Thibaut T., Berline L. et al., From In Situ to satellite observations of pelagic Sargassum distribution and aggregation in the Tropical North Atlantic Ocean, PLoS ONE, 2019, V. 14, No. 9, Article e0222584, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222584.
  28. Palacios J. S., Remote sensing of marine plastic debris using satellite images off the coast of the Basque Country, https://www.researchgate.net, 2024, 29 p.
  29. Papageorgiou D., Topouzelis K., Suaria G. et al., Sentinel-2 detection of floating marine litter targets with partial spectral unmixing and spectral comparison with other floating materials (Plastic Litter Project 2021), Remote Sensing, 2022, V. 14, No. 23, Article 5997, DOI: 10.3390/rs14235997.
  30. Rochman C. M., Browne M. A., Underwood A. J. et al., The ecological impacts of marine debris: unraveling the demonstrated evidence from what is perceived, Ecology, 2016, V. 97, No. 2, pp. 302–312, DOI: 10.1890/14-2070.1.
  31. Sannigrahi S., Basu B., Sarkar Basu A. S., Pilla F., Development of automated marine floating plastic detection system using Sentinel-2 imagery and machine learning models, Marine Pollution Bull., 2022, V. 178, Article 113527, DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113527.
  32. Setiani P., Ramdani F., Oil spill mapping using multi-sensor Sentinel data in Balikpapan Bay, Indonesia, 2018 4 th Intern. Symp. on Geoinformatics (ISyG), 2018, 4 p., DOI: 10.1109/ISYG.2018.8612057.
  33. Shevealy S., Courtney K., Parks J. E., The Honolulu Strategy: A global framework for prevention and management of marine debris, UNEP, NOAA, 2012, 50 p.
  34. Themistocleous K., Papoutsa C., Michaelides S., Hadjimitsis D., Investigating detection of floating plastic litter from space using Sentinel-2 imagery, Remote Sensing, 2020, V. 12, No. 16, Article 2648, DOI: 10.3390/rs12162648.
  35. Topouzelis K., Papakonstantinou A., Garaba S. P., Detection of floating plastics from satellite and unmanned aerial systems (Plastic Litter Project 2018), Intern. J. Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 2019, V. 79, pp. 175–183, DOI: 10.1016/j.jag.2019.03.011.
  36. Tucker C. J., Red and photographic infrared linear combinations for monitoring vegetation, Remote Sensing of Environment, 1979, V. 8, No. 2, pp. 127–150, DOI: 10.1016/0034-4257(79)90013-0.
  37. Tuzcu Kokal A., Olgun N., Musaoğlu N., Detection of mucilage phenomenon in the Sea of Marmara by using multi-scale satellite data, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2022, V. 194, No. 8, Article 585, DOI: 10.1007/s10661-022-10267-6.
  38. Vankayalapati K., Dasari H. P., Langodan S. et al., Multi-mission satellite detection and tracking of October 2019 Sabiti oil spill in the Red Sea, Remote Sensing, 2023, V. 15, No. 1, Article 38, DOI: 10.3390/rs15010038.
  39. Vodeneeva E., Pichugina Y., Zhurova D. et al., Epiplastic algal communities on different types of polymers in freshwater bodies: A short-term experiment in karst lakes, Water, 2024, V. 16, No. 22, Article 3288, DOI: 10.3390/w16223288.
  40. Waqas M., Wong M. S., Stocchino A. et al., Marine plastic pollution detection and identification by using remote sensing-meta analysis, Marine Pollution Bull., 2023, V. 197, Article 115746, DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115746.
  41. Wilcox C., Van Sebille E., Hardesty B. D., Threat of plastic pollution to seabirds is global, pervasive, and increasing, Proc. National Academy of Sciences, 2015, V. 112, No. 38, pp. 11899–11904, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1502108112.