The invention relates to a superglacial moraine covering type glacier identification method based on optical and thermal infrared remote sensing images, and belongs to the field of remote sensing geoscience application. According to the method, the thermal infrared wave band and the optical wave band of Landsat TM/ETM and remote sensing images are utilized, the data of a DEM (dynamic effect model) and the like is combined for carrying out identification on the superglacial moraine covering type glacier, firstly, the topical wave band of the TM/ETM images is subjected to atmosphere radiation correction and topography radiation correction, the thermal infrared wave band is used for carrying out ground surface temperature inversion, in addition, the normalization is carried out, then, the illumination region and the shade region are distinguished, and finally, a maximum likelihood method is utilized for respectively classifying the illumination region and the shade region of the images to obtain the types of ice, superglacial moraine covering type glacier, ice and rock debris mixed regions, shade, rock and the like. Compared with a traditional method, the superglacial moraine covering type glacier identification has the advantages that the thermal infrared waveband is introduced, the identification on the superglacial moraine covering type glacier is more accurate and efficient, and the results obtained by adopting the method provided by the invention are more reasonable in the aspect of data space resolution ratio resampling.