This thesis provides multidisciplinary perspectives on changes in global mass transports, especially in the global water cycle. It investigates the current time-varying states regarding global sea level, terrestrial water storage, mountain glacier mass and highland crustal deformation, drawing on fifteen years of satellite gravimetry observation to do so. The results reveal tremendous changes in various aspects of the global environment, which are due to both anthropogenic and natural factors. Further, the research presented here sheds new light on underlying connections and mechanisms in the global mass transport system.

Over the last two decades, satellite gravimetry has become a new remote sensing technique that provides a detailed global picture of the physical structure of the Earth. With the CHAMP, GRACE, GOCE and GRACE Follow-On missions, mass distribution and mass transport in the Earth system can be systematically observed and monitored from space. A wide range of Earth science disciplines benefit from these data, enabling improvements in applied models, providing new insights into Earth system processes (e.g., monitoring the global water cycle, ice sheet and glacier melting or sea-level rise) or establishing new operational services. Long time series of mass transport data are needed to disentangle anthropogenic and natural sources of climate change impacts on the Earth system. In order to secure sustained observations on a long-term basis, space agencies and the Earth science community are currently planning future satellite gravimetry mission concepts to enable higher accuracy and better spatial and temporal resolution. This Special Issue provides examples of recent improvements in gravity observation techniques and data processing and analysis, applications in the fields of hydrology, glaciology and solid Earth based on satellite gravimetry data, as well as concepts of future satellite constellations for monitoring mass transport in the Earth system.

Radar Remote Sensing: Applications and Challenges advances the scientific understanding, development, and application of radar remote sensing using monostatic, bistatic and multi-static radar geometry. This multidisciplinary reference pulls together a collection of the recent developments and applications of radar remote sensing using different radar geometry and platforms at local, regional and global levels. Radar Remote Sensing is for researchers and practitioners with earth and environmental and meteorological sciences, who are interested in radar remote sensing in ground based scatterometer and SAR systems; air borne scatterometer and SAR systems; space borne scatterometer and SAR systems. - Covers monostatic, bistatic and multi-static radar geometry - Features case studies, including experimental investigations, for practical application - Includes geophysical, oceanographical, and meteorological Synthetic Aperture Radar data

Scientific evidence shows that most glaciers in South Asia's Hindu Kush Himalayan region are retreating, but the consequences for the region's water supply are unclear, this report finds. The Hindu Kush Himalayan region is the location of several of Asia's great river systems, which provide water for drinking, irrigation, and other uses for about 1.5 billion people. Recent studies show that at lower elevations, glacial retreat is unlikely to cause significant changes in water availability over the next several decades, but other factors, including groundwater depletion and increasing human water use, could have a greater impact. Higher elevation areas could experience altered water flow in some river basins if current rates of glacial retreat continue, but shifts in the location, intensity, and variability of rain and snow due to climate change will likely have a greater impact on regional water supplies. Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security makes recommendations and sets guidelines for the future of climate change and water security in the Himalayan Region. This report emphasizes that social changes, such as changing patterns of water use and water management decisions, are likely to have at least as much of an impact on water demand as environmental factors do on water supply. Water scarcity will likely affect the rural and urban poor most severely, as these groups have the least capacity to move to new locations as needed. It is predicted that the region will become increasingly urbanized as cities expand to absorb migrants in search of economic opportunities. As living standards and populations rise, water use will likely increase-for example, as more people have diets rich in meat, more water will be needed for agricultural use. The effects of future climate change could further exacerbate water stress. Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security explains that changes in the availability of water resources could play an increasing role in political tensions, especially if existing water management institutions do not better account for the social, economic, and ecological complexities of the region. To effectively respond to the effects of climate change, water management systems will need to take into account the social, economic, and ecological complexities of the region. This means it will be important to expand research and monitoring programs to gather more detailed, consistent, and accurate data on demographics, water supply, demand, and scarcity.

The book provides the results of tectonic, geological and geophysical studies of Northern, Central and Eastern Asia obtained over the last 20 years, and a Tectonic map for this area overview as well as essays on its geodynamic evolution. These new results were obtained by an international team of specialists within the project “Atlas of geological maps of Central Asia and adjacent areas,” scale 1: 2,500,000, initiated in 2003 by geological surveys of Russia, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and South Korea under the auspices of the CGMW. The most of the book contains the descriptions of the tectonic structure of major geological regions of Asia, such as the Ural, Sayan-Baikal and Tien Shan orogenic systems. The tectonic structure of the Pamirs, Turan Plate, Mongolia, Southern China, Korea and other regions is also discussed. The book contains maps of gravity and magnetic anomalies, sketch maps of deep structures of the area, and the geotransect crossing the most important geological structures of Asia. The final chapter of the book describes the tectonic evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt from the Neoproterozoic to the Mesozoic.

Reference systems and frames are of primary importance for many Earth science applications, satellite navigation as well as for practical applications in geo-information. A precisely defined reference frame is needed for the quantification of, e.g. Earth rotation and its gravity field, global and regional sea level variation, tectonic motion and deformation, post-glacial rebound, geocenter motion, large scale deformation due to Earthquakes, local subsidence and other ruptures and crustal dislocations. All of these important scientific applications fundamentally depend on a truly global reference system that only space geodesy can realize. This volume details the proceedigns of the IAG Symposium REFAG2010 (Marne la Vallée, France, October 4-8, 2010) The primary scope of REFAG2010 was to address today’s achievements on theoretical concepts of reference systems and their practical implementations by individual space geodetic techniques and their combinations, underlying limiting factors, systematic errors and novel approaches for future improvements.