The Potential of Earth Observation for the Analysis of Cold Region Land Surface Dynamics in Europe - A Review

Abstract

Cold regions affect global, regional and local climate; oftentimes they are relevant for water supply, host valuable ecosystems, and support human livelihood. They are thus eminently important for human society. In the context of ongoing climate change, monitoring and understanding cold region land surface dynamics is essential for environmental scientists, stakeholders and decision makers. However, the definition of cold regions remains inexplicit, and no up-to-date cold region maps or overarching spatial analyses exist. For example, Europe has densely populated cold regions, but hardly an article exists that provides a solid overview of Earth Observation (EO) based applications assessing cold region land surface dynamics in Europe. With this review article we aim at closing this gap by providing an overview of EO-based techniques for cold region observation in Europe, focusing on the dynamics of glaciers and snow. We present a novel spatial delineation of cold regions for Europe before analyzing the benefits and limitations of different EO sensor types and data processing methods for EO based cold region research. Furthermore, we identify research gaps and discuss challenges for future studies.