Engineering and Innovation Studentship Project Proposal 2017 Entry

Engineering and Innovation Studentship project proposal– 2017 entry

Project title: Using satellites to monitor plastics in the world’s oceans

Supervisory team (Faculty at OU & email address):

Dr Armando Marino – The Open University, [email protected]

Dr Carl Boardman – The Open University, [email protected]

Dr Marc Pradas – The Open University, [email protected]

Project Highlights:  The potential to quantify the extent of the Great Garbage Patches and contribute towards cleaning our oceans  Opportunity (not compulsory) to spend up to 6 months in a top-rank Chinese University  An exciting multidisciplinary project combining lab work, fieldwork and satellite data processing

Project Description: The use of plastic based materials offers large societal Figure 1. Plastic litter in the marine environment benefits. However, a by-product of the production of (Source: BBC -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science- 250 million tonnes of plastic a year is the environment-34414710) contamination of natural ecosystems by fugitive plastics. The world’s oceans are one natural The successful candidate will undertake exciting multi- ecosystem where it is estimated that there are 5.25 disciplinary work that involves: trillion pieces of plastic (270,000 tonnes) present. Due 1. Laboratory experiments investigating the to ocean currents, this plastic tends to accumulate hypothesis that Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) within five major ocean gyres that are referred to as images acquired by satellites can reliably detect “Garbage Patches”. Plastic here represents a hazard plastics due to biofilm formation and a dampening of to animals through entanglement and ingestion, as waves over the ocean surface. well as a threat to the food chain from the 2. Quantifying the amount of plastic in the accumulation of persistent organic pollutants (Figure world’s ocean gyres through the analysis of ESA 1). Sentinel-1 satellite imagery. SAR images looks The first step in tackling this problem is to quantify it; somehow similar to optical images, but they are much a particularly challenging task however given the large more sensitive to ocean surface roughness. They are extent and remoteness of the Garbage Patches. also able to see through clouds. Currently, quantification is limited to extrapolating 3. It is foreseen that the project will include information from a relatively small number of ocean some fieldwork in coastal areas around the UK, which trawls covering a limited area. There is therefore a are renowned to have problems with plastic pollution. pressing need for an approach that can offer reliable During the fieldwork, SAR images will be acquired maps of plastic contamination at a global scale. This using the ground radar owned by the Radio Frequency project aims to address this requirement by using group at the Open University. images acquired by satellites. In summary, this project aims to quantify plastic accumulation in the world’s oceans with unprecedented resolution and accuracy. The obtained Candidate Applications: maps will help optimise future clean-up activities.  1000 word cover letter outlining how you are equipped in educational background and expertise to conduct the research project, Methodology:  a CV including contact details of three This project includes lab work and data analysis. academic references The lab experiments: Ocean simulation of microbial  An Open University application form, colonisation and radar mapping of biofilms. This work downloadable from: would require the use of tanks to simulate ocean http://www.open.ac.uk/postgraduate/resear conditions. Micro-plastics will be added into the tank ch-degrees/how-to-apply/mphil-and-phd- and the growth of biofilms monitored over several application-process (Note: This is an weeks using spectrophotometry and high powered Advertised studentship and you do not need electron microscopes. The ambient temperature and to submit a proposal). light levels would be monitored and/or fixed to  IELTs English Language test scores simulate typical ocean conditions. Ocean waves will be simulated and the dampening properties of biofilms observed using a ground based radar and a Further details: high resolution camera. Students should have a strong background in Processing of satellite data: The candidate will engineering or physical sciences and enthusiasm for download freely available ESA Sentinel-1 SAR images research and data acquisition. Experience of to observe and quantify the extent of plastic electronics, signal processing, waste management and accumulation in oceans. The images will be processed programming is desirable. The student will join a well- using freely available ESA software and Python or established team researching radar remote sensing, Matlab. waste management and mathematics at the Open Processing of fieldwork data: The candidate will be University. accompanied by Dr. Marino during the data acquisition in coastal areas. The images will be Please contact Dr. Armando Marino for further processed using Python or Matlab scripts. information ([email protected]).

Applications should be submitted to STEM-EI- Matched funding: [email protected] by 4pm 8th March 2017. This work is linked to another project with the ESA and the successful candidate could chose to visit a Interviews will be held during w/c 27th March 2017. top-rank Chinese Universities in a training exchange and research collaboration for up to 6 months. This visit is optional and the successful completion does not dependent upon it.

Indication of project timeline: Year 1: Preparing a literature review on microwave scattering from ocean and microbial production of surfactants. Lab experiments monitoring biofilm formation and fieldwork. Year 2: Analysis of experimental data will be tackled and further experiments undertaken. Exploration of Sentinel-1 data. Year 3: The student will use the data collected in the two previous experiments to formulate their thesis chapters and expected submission of journal papers.