Monitoring Alpine Glaciers with ALOS SAR and Optical data

International audienceThe monitoring of temperate glacier activity is one of the applications which require the combined use of optical and SAR data. It should become feasible thanks to the ALOS PRISM and PALSAR sensors. In this paper, we present the interest of using L-band polarimetric interferometric SAR data and high resolution panchromatic stereoscopic data to monitor moving temperate glaciers made of ice, snow and rocks. The scientific issues are described and a test-site located in the Mont-Blanc region in the Alps is proposed for specific experiment and validation. The Mont-Blanc test-site includes two well-known glaciers (Mer-de-Glace and Argentière glaciers) where a large data set has been collected: ERS, RADARSAT and ENVISAT data, airborne E-SAR data (X, C, L and P bands), airborne photographs, GPS and GPR in-situ measurements..