{"id":157431,"date":"2023-02-09T05:01:18","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T11:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/tracking-ocean-microplastics-from-space"},"modified":"2023-02-09T05:01:18","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T11:01:18","slug":"tracking-ocean-microplastics-from-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/tracking-ocean-microplastics-from-space","title":{"rendered":"Tracking ocean microplastics from space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/edqeL19L3ok?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>New information about an emerging technique that could track microplastics from space has been uncovered by researchers at the University of Michigan. It turns out that satellites are best at spotting soapy or oily residue, and microplastics appear to tag along with that residue.<\/p>\n<p>Microplastics\u2014tiny flecks that can ride ocean currents hundreds or thousands of miles from their point of entry\u2014can harm sea life and <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/marine+ecosystems\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">marine ecosystems<\/a>, and they\u2019re extremely difficult to track and clean up. However, a 2021 discovery raised the hope that satellites could offer day-by-day timelines of where microplastics enter the water, how they move and where they tend to collect, for prevention and clean-up efforts.<\/p>\n<p>The team noticed that data recorded by the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), showed less <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/surface+roughness\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">surface roughness <\/a>\u2014that is, fewer and smaller waves\u2014in areas of the ocean that contain microplastics, compared to clean areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New information about an emerging technique that could track microplastics from space has been uncovered by researchers at the University of Michigan. It turns out that satellites are best at spotting soapy or oily residue, and microplastics appear to tag along with that residue. Microplastics\u2014tiny flecks that can ride ocean currents hundreds or thousands of [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[493,2028],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climatology","category-satellites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}