REMOTE SENSING AND GEOMORPHOMETRY FOR GEOSCIENCE APPLICATIONS IN MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENTS
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.