Remote sensing of closed and climatically sensitive open lakes can provide useful information for hydrological applications and, through long‐term monitoring, for climatic change. One new method that offers a unique way of providing relative lake level data in areas where ground gauge measurements are unavailable uses satellite radar altimetry.Global measurement of climate‐related variables will help to detect and monitor climate changes as they occur and validate climate models and related process studies. Because lake volumes respond to changes in precipitation integrated over their catchment basins [Street‐Perrott et al., 1986], they can act as important indirect indicators of climatic change. This response is particularly marked for closed lakes which have no significant surface or subsurface outflow.