Fredagskollokvium: Glacier monitoring from satellites

Glaciers are one of the best terrestrial indicators of climate change. They integrate variations in, among others, air temperature and precipitation in a clearly visible way. For the first time in history satellite data and their archives are now sufficient in terms of spatial and temporal resolution, and their accuracy, to measure area and volume changes, velocities and changes in these velocities over time for glaciers and ice caps on a global scale. In this presentation, I will explain why global-scale monitoring of glaciers is important, and why satellite remote sensing is the tool of choice to achieve this goal. We will go through the major satellite methods used to map glaciers, to measure their volume and mass changes, and to observe their flow.