The AIR Centre made a significant impact at the recent Portuguese biennial Earth Observation conference, Conferência Terra em Foco, held at the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal, from September 12-13. This year, the conference expanded its scope to the entire Earth Observation value chain, fostering exchanges between academia with the space industry and public administration.

With over 200 participants, the Portuguese Earth Observation community came together in this event, sharing knowledge and experiences, and showcasing its new products, services, and opportunities in the areas of Space, Remote Sensing, and Geospatial Information. The conference was organized into parallel thematic sessions with oral presentation on applications and technology, including practical workshops, and a poster session featuring the latest works from the community.

At the conference, the AIR Centre showcased its cutting-edge research on satellite detection of marine debris. The presentation focused on how the AIR Centre is leveraging satellite technology to track and monitor marine debris, offering new insights into the scale of pollution affecting coastal oceans. By integrating satellite imagery with advanced machine- learning algorithms, AIR Centre has developed an open-source data pipeline called POS2IDON to help identify debris hotspots and predicting accumulation zones of marine debris, in particular of macroplastics.

The POS2IDON tool is designed to streamline the detection of marine debris from satellite data in an automated manner and to quickly processing vast amounts of data, enabling analysis and reports for researchers and decision-makers. The tool is being tested in the framework of the EU-funded project LabPlas, and contributes to the ongoing international efforts to develop frameworks and methodologies to reduce the harmful effects of plastic and pollution on marine ecosystems.

AIR Centre’s participation in Terra em Foco was met with great interest from attendees, further solidifying AIR Centre’s role in advancing ocean monitoring technologies. The conference has proven to be an essential platform for innovative ideas in research and action, with AIR Centre’s work highlighting the key role that Earth Observation satellite data plays in addressing critical global challenges like marine debris.