Big Plastic Masses Detection using Sentinel 2 Images

Abstract: This communication describes a preliminary research on detection of big masses of plastic (marine litter) on the oceans and seas using EO (Earth Observation) satellite systems. Free images from the Sentinel 2 (Copernicus Project) platform are used. To develop a plastic recognizer, we start with an image where we can find a big accumulation of "nonfloating" plastic: Almer\'ia greenhouses. We made a test using remote sensing differential indexes, but we got much better results using all available wavelengths (thirteen frequency bands) and applying Neural Networks to that feature vector.