Snow and glacier investigations using hyperspectral data in the Himalaya

This article presents highlights of the research work done in hyperspectral remote sensing in the Himalayan cryosphere. Hyperspectral radiometric investigations conducted at different field locations of NW Himalaya and cold laboratory are discussed. Spectral signatures were collected for varying snow grain size, contamination, liquid water content, vegetation/soilmixed snow, glacier ice, moraines and other ambient objects. The important wavelengths for snow applications are found to be 440, 550, 590, 660, 860, 1050, 1240 and 1650 nm. Further, the retrieval of snow parameters such as grain size, spectral albedo and snow contamination using imaging data at the above wavelength channels is discussed. Wavelengths 550, 1240 and 1660 nm are found to be useful for discriminating different glacier features. Limitations in hyperspectral remote sensing such as availability of imaging data, rugged topography and further research issues such as multi-sensor mapping and data fusion, multiangle measurements, 3D adjacency effect and improved algorithms for quantitative retrieval of contaminants are identified.