Understanding glacial processes is key to assessing the sensitivity of glacier systems to changing climate. An important basis for large scale assessments is a comprehensive glacier inventory. Glaciers are monitored on different spatio-temporal scales, from extensive seasonal mass balance studies at selected glaciers to multi-decadal repeat inventories over entire mountain ranges. Internationally coordinated glacier monitoring aims at combining in-situ measurement with remotely sensed data, and local process understanding with global coverage. Bringing together studies from the tropics to polar regions as well as from different disciplines, this session includes presentations on both in-situ and remotely sensed monitoring of glaciers, and on related uncertainty assessments. A special section of this session is dedicated to the assessment and application of the new globally complete Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI).

keynotes:
Andrea Fischer (Innsbruck): Remote sensing vs. in situ measurements: Two poles of the same planet?
Bruce Raup et al. (Boulder): GLIMS and the RGI: Relationships present and future