MAPPING GLACIAL LAKES WITH PRISMA IMAGES

Glacial lakes are increasing their importance as a pool of water resources in a warming climate scenario. As glaciers are melting at increasing rates, new glacial lakes appear to the detriment of more stable frozen water. Monitoring this trend is important to track the distribution of the water resource in the mountains and to report any dangerous situation that can occur. Most freely available satellite images have a moderate spatial resolution not enough fine to map small water bodies. The PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa) sensor can combine hyperspectral information in the VNIR, with a spatial detail of 5 m (PAN band). This study explores the application of PRISMA pan-sharpened images to accurately map glacial lakes evaluating radiometric fidelity and geometric precision in the sharpened products within a specific study site. It represents one of the few applications of pan-sharpening techniques for the glacial lakes mapping.