8. Remote Sensing Monitoring of the Long-term Regime of the Pamirs Glaciers

Stable shrinkage of the total area of the Pamir glacier is revealed during the entire period of observation. The mean rate of glacier degradation during the period of 1980–2000 has increased in comparison with the previous period. Taking into account peculiarities of identification of glacier boundaries on scenes from satellites Landsat 7 ETM+ and TERRA, the characteristics of long-term changes in glacier size should be considered as reliable if obtained by using general assemble or representative sampling.