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Glacier- and permafrost-related hazards increasingly threaten human lives, settlements, and infrastructure in high-mountain regions. Present atmospheric warming particularly affects terrestrial systems where surface and sub-surface ice are involved. Changes in glacier and permafrost equilibrium are shifting beyond historical knowledge. Human settlement and activities are extending toward danger zones in the cryospheric system. A number of recent glacier hazards and disasters underscore these trends. Difficult site access and the need for fast data acquisition make satellite remote sensing of crucial importance in high-mountain hazard management and disaster mapping.

Shipboard, aircraft and satellite atmospheric data are examined to determine the representativeness of the Frontal Air-Sea Interaction Experiment (FASINEX) intensive measurement period. Phase II, in terms of climatology, atmospheric forcing, the general structure of the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL), and variability in boundary layer properties affecting air-ocean dynamics and thermodynamics. With regard to climatology, conditions observed during the intensive period were typical in terms of air-sea temperature differences, surface pressure patterns, cloud cover, and storm tracks. Storm system variabilities, such as the air temperature behind cold fronts, wind stress maxima occurring after frontal passage, the times for clockwise vector wind shifts associated with the frontal systems, and the systems' speeds, are estimated and emphasized in synoptic-scale characterizations, since these can be related to observed ocean responses. The local ocean surface variability was observed to have an influence on regional boundary layer properties and on air-sea interaction parameters even in the presence of the atmospheric storms.