The satellites are able to track soapy or oily residue in seas and oceans which have been shown to carry microplastics.

Microplastics – tiny flecks that can ride ocean currents hundreds or thousands of miles from their point of entry – can harm sea life and marine ecosystems, and they’re extremely difficult to track and clean up.

But the researchers believe 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.

Data recorded by the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (pictured) showed less surface roughness – that is, fewer and smaller waves – in areas of the ocean that contain microplastics, compared to clean areas.

In preliminary testing, they used the technique to spot suspected microplastic releases at the mouth of China’s Yangtze River and to identify seasonal variations in the Great Pacific Garbage patch, a convergence zone in the...