## 1 Introduction  
The mountain cryosphere and the glaciers found around the globe have a non-trivial impact on humanity. On a fundamental level, the glaciers scattered throughout the globe, provide a large segment of the world's residents with a source of freshwater. Populations residing in arid regions, typically near mountains often depend on run off from melting glaciers for their water during the drier and warmer parts of the year. River systems meandering through portions of Asia are sustained from ice and snowmelt located in the Himalayas and the glaciers within the mountain range, this is particularly true in late summer when a predominant factor contributing to river flow comes from melting glaciers [1] provides a supplementary source of water during the sustained dry periods experienced in this urban region [2]. The socio-political impacts due to the loss of mountain glaciers have the potential to be significant on both the ecological and global political level [3]. The recognition of these contingencies has spurred increased interest and research into the study of the mountain cryosphere and the health of the glacier it contains. Stepping into the issue of glacier recession one quickly realizes the enormity of the undertaking this problem set. The first roadblock is the substantial number of glaciers that can be found around the globe (Figure 1). The Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) Glacier Database currently has 604,986 unique glacier outline entries [4; 5]. Investigation of the spatial data demonstrates that many individual glaciers are but one component of a complex subsection of a larger glacier network (Figure 1). Additionally, the remote, and in some cases, denied locations, coupled with austere conditions found in the vicinity of glaciers places emphasis on finding alternatives to the in-situ measurements of changes taken on the ground. An example would be the country of North Korea, obtaining access to glaciers here may prove challenging or impossible. One candidate for a collection method which finds extensive use in the existing literature is remote sensing, and more specifically the use of satellite imagery. Remote sensing is a broad-based term that encompasses a diverse number of platforms which include both spaceborne platforms on orbit and air breathing aerial platforms which include assets like drones or aircraft equipped with different sensor technology. The existing datasets and databases contain multiple decades of useful images from which to extract information. Within these images the features of principal interest are the location of the glacier's terminal point (Figure 2) and its change through time. The proper identification of which allows for the estimation of the recession velocity along with the changing area of the glacier or glaciers of interest. Found within the extant literature, are numerous methods for estimating changes in the location of a glacier's terminus using optical based image data and for estimating changes in glacial area [6; 7; 8; 9]. Figure 1: Regional Glacier Network Overview. Previous research on methods of glacial recession and on the identification of glacial termini are vast. The work has produced numerous methodological processes using a variety of diverse techniques (Figure 2). Surveying these efforts, one can glean that while some of the methods will work well on single efforts or one-off projects, for instance a study of one particular glacier, others are more suitable for larger scale analysis and have the potential to be easily automated and generalizable. Given the size of the global glacier inventory is a desirable quality for global scale of modeling. Previous research using commonly employed methods to track changes in the termini of glaciers has shown a common theme.