Many geoscience investigations require thematic and quantitative information to be extracted from satellite imagery. With existing satellite data and a new generation of earth-observing sensors in orbit, earth scientists have access to spatial and temporal data that can provide insights into scale dependent processes, environmental change, and earth-system dynamics. The availability of new data, however, does not directly translate to accurate geologic information, as numerous developments in geographic information science over the last 10 years must be implemented and tested. The modeling and analysis of topography represents a significant advancement in producing geologic information, although challenges remain. Two unique challenges include understanding multi-scale topographic effects on sensor response, and ways to integrate remotely sensed data and topographic information, so that spectral, spatial and contextual information can be used.

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate new developments and opportunities in remote sensing of mountain environments. Specifically, anisotropic reflectance correction (ARC) of satellite imagery will be discussed with respect to pixel and subpixel scale topographic effects on the irradiant and radiant flux. Furthermore, new developments in spatial analysis of the topography and data integration will be demonstrated for mapping alpine glaciers. Results indicate that ARC of satellite imagery in rugged terrain must account for multi-scale topographic effects and include the diffuse and adjacent terrain irradiance components. In addition, object-oriented modeling of the topography can be effectively used for alpine glacier mapping and the integration of remote sensing and GIS. Collectively, the results show that accurate geological information can be extracted using spectral and topographic information. This should enable geoscientists to further study the role of surface processes in mountain geodynamics.