## 1 Introduction  
Permanfrost is an essential component of the cryosphere [1], which is defined as ground material (sediment, soil or rock) that remains at or below 0 \({}^{\circ}\)C for at least two consecutive years [1, 2]. Permafrost has been identified as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV) by the Global Climate Observing System of the World Meteorological Organisation [3] and is currently undergoing strong changes due to rising air and ground temperatures [2, 4]. Mountain permafrost warming and degradation leads to changes in runoff and increased geohazards such as slope instabilities, landslides and rock falls [4; 5; 6; 7]. However, as permafrost is a subsurface feature, its observation and monitoring of ongoing changes remains scarce and challenging [4; 8]. Pernafrost creep due to gravitative processes is one key indicator for the existence of mountain permafrost [6; 9], which is used to detect and outline the occurrence of permafrost [7; 10]. The movement results in the formation of characteristic landforms such as rock glaciers, which have a distinct front, lateral margins and often a surface with ridges and furrows [6; 9; 10; 11]. Therefore, Rock Glacier Velocity (RGV) was added as a new ECV product of permafrost in 2022 [3]. RGVs usually range from a few centimeters to up to a few meters per year, although in rare cases of destabilization they can exceed 10 m per year [10; 12; 13; 14]; they are categorized into three classes by the International Pernafrost Association (IPA): active (>10 cm/a), transitional (1-10 cm/a), and inactive (<1 cm/a) [10; 15]. Multiple studies in the Alps have shown that rising temperatures in most cases [16; 17; 18; 13] as well as the availability of liquid water [19; 20; 21; 22] lead to an increase in RGVs. Additionally, dynamics on different temporal scales could be identified: longterm (decadal), multiannual and seasonal dynamics. These dynamics are linked to changes in the two drivers: temperature and liquid water. Based on [PERSON] et al., 2020 [23] and other recent studies [6; 9; 13; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 24; 25; 26; 27; 28], we summarize RGV dynamics as follows: longterm trends are related to climatic changes resulting in increased ground temperatures, which increase the viscosity of permafrost bodies. This temperature trend is overlain by multiannual effects, such as summer heat waves and increased cooling due to low snow cover during autumn and winter. Seasonal and short-term dynamics are driven by the availability of liquid water from snowmelt and summer precipitation. Under specific topographic conditions (increasing slope of the bedrock and downslope of the rock glacier front), an increase in RGV might reach a tipping point in external force, resulting in the destabilization of a rock glacier. Over longer (multidecadal) timescales, however, increasing temperatures will result in decreasing velocities due to ongoing permafrost degradation and decreasing ice concentrations which results in a conversion of active rock glaciers to a transitional and then inactive state. Despite the increased understanding of rock glacier dynamics in recent years, modeling approaches have so far had limited success in describing rock glacier dynamics [14; 27; 28; 29]. Further, observations are usually limited in their spatial coverage (in situ borehole deformation, inclinometers and GNSS measurements) [19; 20; 23; 30] or in short-term temporal resolution (Feature Tracking) [13; 18; 25; 31; 32]. Therefore, spaceborne Differential SAR Interferometry (DInSAR) has become an increasingly popular method to derive rock glacier velocities [10; 33; 34; 35] as it provides displacement information at high spatial and temporal resolutions. DInSAR uses the phase difference between two Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) acquisitions to detect distance changes of the surface towards the sensor and is capable of detecting relative displacements of a few millimeters along the so-called Line of Sight (LOS).