Remote sensing of glaciers

Bruce H. Raup*, Liss M. Andreassen, Tobias Bolch, Suzanne Bevan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Many elements of the cryosphere respond to changes in climate, but mountain glaciers are particularly good indicators of climate change, because they respond more quickly than most other ice bodies on Earth. Remote sensing methods are capable of measuring many parameters of mountain glaciers and the changes they exhibit, leading to greater insight into processes affecting changes in glaciers and, hence, climate. Mass balance is an important parameter indicating the health of a glacier. A more recent approach to detect mass changes in land ice is through measurement of the gravitational field using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite system, which measures changes in mass below the orbit track. Advances have been made recently in remote sensing of glaciers on a number of fronts, including more complete and more accurate glacier inventories, improved glacier mapping techniques, and new insights from gravimetric satellites.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationRemote Sensing of the Cryosphere
PublisherWiley
Pages123-156
Number of pages34
ISBN (Electronic)9781118368909
ISBN (Print)9781118368855
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Nov 2014

Keywords

  • Cryosphere
  • GRACE satellite system
  • Mass balance
  • Mountain glaciers
  • Remote sensing

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