GFZ German research centre for geo sciences

Glaciers

Understanding climate change is of topical interest in the current century, due to an increased impact of natural disasters on mankind. Since long-term changes in temperature and precipitation have direct effects on a glacier's mass balance, the variations in the kinematics of glaciers can be seen as a climate change indicator giving clues about the potential development. However, glaciers are often located in remote areas and are very hard to access, which makes direct measurements very difficult. One possibility to overcome this problem is the application of radar remote sensing data. Since radar sensors are independent from illumination conditions, they are the ideal tools to get regular acquisitions of glaciated areas.

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