A NASA sensor is able to detect signs of sewage contamination in the Pacific Ocean, a new study has concluded.
The authors of the study examined the mouth of the Tijuana River and tracked a large sewage plume using an image spectrometer known as Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT).
The EMIT sensor was installed on the International Space Station in 2022, and it will remain there, actively collecting data, until at least 2026. The highly sensitive instrument measures light in visible and infrared wavelengths, splitting them into hundreds of color bands, according to NASA…