Remote Sensing of the Mountain Cryosphere: Current Capabilities and Future Opportunities for Research

Kurzfassung

Remote sensing technologies are integral to monitoring the mountain cryosphere in a warming world.Satellite missions and field-based platforms have transformed understanding of the processes driving changesin mountain glacier dynamics, snow cover, lake evolution, and the associated emergence of hazards (e.g.avalanches, floods, landslides). Sensors and platforms are becoming more bespoke, with innovation beingdriven by the commercial sector, and image repositories are more frequently open access, leading to thedemocratisation of data analysis and interpretation. Cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machinelearning are rapidly transforming our ability to handle this exponential increase in data. This review thereforeprovides a timely opportunity to synthesise current capabilities in remote sensing of the mountain cryo-sphere. Scientific and commercial applications were critically examined, recognising the technologies thathave most advanced the discipline. Low-cost sensors can also be deployed in the field, using microprocessorsand telecommunications equipment to connect mountain glaciers to stakeholders for real-time monitoring.The potential for novel automated pipelines that can process vast volumes of data is also discussed, fromreimagining historical aerial imagery to produce elevation models, to automatically delineating glacierboundaries. Finally, the applications of these emerging techniques that will benefit scientific research avenuesand real-world societal programmes are discussed.