ESA CCI+ Permafrost Project - Mountain permafrost option

Permafrost cannot be directly detected from space, but many surface features of permafrost terrains and typical periglacial landforms are observable with a variety of Earth Observation (EO) sensors ranging from very high to medium resolution in various wavelengths. In addition, landscape dynamics associated with permafrost changes and geophysical variables relevant for characterising the state of permafrost, such as land surface temperature or snow-water equivalent, can be observed with space-based EO. The European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative for Permafrost (ESA CCI Permafrost Project) provides for different epochs consistent global maps of the parameters permafrost temperature and active layer thickness based on Earth Observation records ingested into a permafrost model scheme.

In periglacial mountain environments, permafrost occurrence is patchy, and the preservation of permafrost is controlled by site-specific conditions, which require the development of dedicated products as a complement to GT and ALT measurements and permafrost models. Rock glaciers are the best visual expression of the creep of mountain permafrost and constitute an essential geomorphological heritage of the mountain periglacial landscape. Their dynamics are largely influenced by climatic factors. The interannual variations of the rock glacier creep rates are influenced by changing permafrost temperature.

Two rock glacier products are included in ESA CCI Permafrost: Rock Glacier Inventory (RoGI) and Rock Glacier Velocity (RGV). This agrees with the objectives of the International Permafrost Association (IPA) Standing Committee on Rock Glacier Inventories and Kinematics (RGIK) and concurs with 2021–2022 GCOS and GTN-P decisions to add RGV as a new product of the Essential Climate Variables (ECV) Permafrost to monitor changing mountain permafrost conditions. RoGI is an equally valuable product to document past and present permafrost extent. It is a recommended first step to comprehensively characterise and select the landforms that can be used for RGV monitoring. RoGI and RGV products also form a unique validation dataset for climate models in mountain regions, where direct permafrost measurements are very scarce or lacking.

Using satellite remote sensing, generating systemic RoGI at the regional scale and documenting RGV interannual changes over many landforms become feasible. Within Permafrost_cci, we mostly use Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) technology based on Sentinel-1 images that provide a global coverage, a large range of detection capability (mm–cm/yr to m/yr) and fine spatio-temporal resolutions (tens of m pixel size and 6–12 days of repeat-pass). InSAR is complemented at some locations by SAR offset tracking techniques and spaceborne/airborne optical photogrammetry

 

Current collaborators: Line Rouyet, Cécile Pellet, Lea Schmid, Alina Milceva, Reynald Delaloye

Past collaborators: Aldo Bertone, Chloé Barboux, Thomas Echelard

Contact: reynald.delaloye[at]unifr.ch

Duration: 2018 - 2026

Study area: Globe

 

  • Illustrations

    Key regions investigated to provide standardized regional rock glacier inventories

  • Results

    Rock Glacier Inventories (RoGI) in 12 areas

    In the framework of ESA CCI Permafrost, we set up a multi-operator mapping exercise in 12 areas around the world. Each RoGI team was composed of 5 to 10 operators, involving 41 persons in total. Each operator performed similar steps following the guidelines of the Rock Glacier Inventories and Kinematics (RGIK) community and using a similar QGIS tool. The individual results were compared and combined after common meetings to agree on the final consensus-based solutions. In total, 337 “certain” rock glaciers have been identified and characterised, and 222 additional landforms have been identified as “uncertain” rock glaciers. The final dataset consists of three GeoPackage (gpkg) files for each area: (1) the primary markers (PMs) locating and characterising the identified rock glacier units (RGUs), (2) the moving areas (MAs) delineating areas with surface movement associated with the rock glacier creep based on spaceborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), and (3) the geomorphological outlines (GOs) delineating the restricted and extended rock glacier unit (RGU) boundaries. Here we present the procedure for generating consensus-based RoGIs, describe the data properties, highlight their value and limitations, and discuss potential applications. The final PM/MA/GO dataset is available on Zenodo. The RoGI multi-operator procedure and data properties are described in an ESSD article. The GeoPackage (gpkg) templates for performing similar RoGIs in other areas and exercises based on the QGIS tool are available on the RGIK website.

     

    Access our WebGIS to view the results!

    Past version of similar product types:

     See the map here

      

  • Collaboration

    Collaboration:

    CCI Permafrost Consortium

     

    External partners

    • Graz University of Technology (TU Graz)
    • Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), France
    • University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), USA
    • Argentine Institute of Nivology, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences (IANIGLA), Argentina
    • University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland
    • Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Mongolia
    • Chinese University of Hong Kong (CHUK), China)
    • CNRS/Université Savoie Mont-Blanc, France
    • University of St Andrews, St Andrews

     

  • Publications & Documents

    Rouyet, L., Bolch, T., Brardinoni, F., Caduff, R., Cusicanqui, D., Darrow, M., Delaloye, R., Echelard, T., Lambiel, C., Pellet, C., Ruiz, L., Schmid, L., Sirbu, F., and Strozzi, T.: Rock Glacier Inventories (RoGIs) in 12 areas worldwide using a multi-operator consensus-based procedure, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 4125–4157, 2025. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-4125-2025.

    Hu, Y., Arenson, L. U., Barboux, C., Bodin, X., Cicoira, A., Delaloye, R., Gärtner-Roer, I., Kääb, A., Kellerer-Pirklbauer, A., Lambiel, C., Liu, L., Pellet, C., Rouyet, L., Schoeneich, P., Seier, G., and Strozzi, T.: Rock glacier velocity: An essential climate variable quantity for permafrost. Reviews of Geophysics, 63, e2024RG000847, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024RG000847.

    Zwieback, S., Liu, L., Rouyet, L., Short, N. and Strozzi, T.: Advances in InSAR Analysis of Permafrost Terrain. Permafrost and Periglac. Process., 2024. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp.2248.

    Kääb, A., Røste, J. Rock glaciers across the United States predominantly accelerate coincident with rise in air temperatures. Nat. Commun. 15, 7581, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52093-z.

    Bertone, A., Jones, N., Mair, V., Scotti, R., Strozzi, T., and Brardinoni, F.: A climate-driven, altitudinal transition in rock glacier dynamics detected through integration of geomorphological mapping and synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR)-based kinematics, The Cryosphere, 18, 2335–2356, 2024. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2335-2024.

    Lambiel, C., Strozzi, T., Paillex, N., Vivero, S. and Jones, N.: Inventory and kinematics of active and transitional rock glaciers in the Southern Alps of New Zealand from Sentinel-1 InSAR, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 55:1, 2183999, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2023.2183999.

    Bartsch, A., Strozzi, T., and Nitze, I.: Permafrost Monitoring from Space, Surveys in Geophysics, 2023. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10712-023-09770-3.

    RGIK: Guidelines for inventorying rock glaciers: baseline and practical concepts (version 1.0, 28 December 2023), IPA Action Group Rock Glacier Inventories and Kinematics, 25 pp., 2023. https://doi.org/10.51363/unifr.srr.2023.002

    Lilleøren, K. S., Etzelmüller, B., Rouyet, L., Eiken, T., Slinde, G., and Hilbich, C.: Transitional rock glaciers at sea level in northern Norway, Earth Surf. Dynam., 10, 975–996, 2022. https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-975-2022.

    Bertone, A., Barboux, C., Bodin, X., Bolch, T., Brardinoni, F., Caduff, R., Christiansen, H. H., Darrow, M., Delaloye, R., Etzelmüller, B., Humlum, O., Lambiel, C., Lilleøren, K. S., Mair, V., Pellegrinon, G., Rouyet, L., Ruiz, L., and Strozzi, T.: Incorporating InSAR kinematics into rock glacier inventories: insights from 11 regions worldwide , The Cryosphere, 16, 2769–2792, 2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2769-2022.

    Rouyet, L., Lilleøren, K.S., Böhme, M., Vick, L.M., Delaloye, R., Etzelmüller, B., Lauknes, T.R., Larsen, Y., and Blikra, L.H. (2021): Regional Morpho-Kinematic Inventory of Slope Movements in Northern Norway, Front. Earth Sci. 9:6810881, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.681088.

    Strozzi T., Caduff, R., Jones, N., Barboux, C., Delaloye, R., Bodin, X., Kääb, A., Mätzler, E. and Schrott, L.: Monitoring Rock Glacier Kinematics with Synthetic Aperture Radar. Remote Sensing, 12(3), 559. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12030559

    Kääb, A., Strozzi, T., Bolch, T., Caduff, R., Trefall, H., Stoffel, M., and Kokarev, A.: Inventory and changes of rock glacier creep speeds in Ile Alatau and Kungöy Ala-Too, northern Tien Shan, since the 1950s, The Cryosphere, 15, 927–949, 2021. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-927-2021.

    Brardinoni, F., Scotti, R., Sailer, R., and Mair, V.: Evaluating sources of uncertainty and variability in rock glacier inventories, Earth Surf. Proc. Land., 44, 2450–2466, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.4674.

    Trofaier, A., Westermann S., and Bartsch A.: Progress in space-borne studies of permafrost for climate science: Towards a multi-ECV approach. Remote Sensing of Environment, 203, 55–70, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.05.021.

     

    Practical guidelines: rock glacier inventory using InSAR (kinematic approach) (current version)