Cryoconite only develops in glacier ice in the ablation zone, thus the accumulation zone and even the zone of firn will not develop these. This is largely because water drains through permeable snow and firn. Cryoconite requires long term water pooling in the small holes. In terms of expansion. This is a big region, and past observations of distribution are lacking, so it will be tough to observe. Though the albedo measurements of Box certainly suggest this could be occurring.

Lewis I reviewed a paper two years ago that evaluated cryoconite in detail. They found that the organics despite making up only 5% of the dark material played an important role. Wientjes et al (2011)

There is not typically much melt by May 1 and if you look at the data from the ice sheet, limited melt until the end of May. This year the sensors at the K-Transect indicate the limited melt potential as yet. This has little to do with a potential melt record. In 2012 the first appearance of a melt lake in the Russell Glacier catchment was day 150. Last year this played out further north at Sarqardliup Sermia lakes too

The low Barents Sea Ice cover will continue to have an impact on Novaya Zemlya glaciers such as Krivosheina where recent retreat has freed a new island.

The onset of the January SSW over Asia is depicted nicely in this animation from The Lee Side.

Illusiat Fjord has an unusual amount of open water for late March. http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/images/MODIS/Disko/20130321TERR.jpg Bussemand Glacier in East Greenland retreat.

John: The retreat of Jakobshavn from 1851 to 1931 was quite slow compared to the current context. There is no doubt the emergence from the LIA generated widespread retreat of GIS outlet glaciers, the rate of that retreat here just pails by comparison to the current changes.

Just returned from the Arctic Workshop and was not encouraged by the data presented. Climate Central is only a week behind your notice on fracturing ice, that why we come here first. Dexterity Fjord Icecap is losing on the ice volume battle too.

Just published an index of the posts I have done on Greenland Glaciers , this is something I will look to update, any feedback is welcome

Aaron is correct water vapor is critical to melt rate. The potential impact of soot on the albedo of the accumulation zone of the GIS could be crucial. The Dark Snow Project has a finite and achievable goal of identifying this impact. This is the year to pursue this project because of the nature of the 2012 summer. I tend to think the role of soot is not as large as is more commonly cited. I look forward to knowing this answer not just thinking what it might be. Narssap Sermia has began a significant retreat in 2009.

The reduction in sea ice duration and snow cover duration in Northern Greenland has impacted the Dodge and Storm Glacier's at Cape Alexander. The former is now actively calving, not the case in the past.

You can watch the jet stream circle the northern hemisphere over the last 5-20 days depending on what you choose in the animated program here.

If you are worried about a Connection to the heart of the ice sheet look at the Zacharaiae Glacier. The Christoffersen 2012 paper does not really conflict. That paper focuses on a single period of retreat. This is different than thinning from more subglacial melt leading to acceleration of glaciers. The mechanism is specific to one glacier and one time period. This is not a mechanism that can be used to apply to most of the retreating outlet glaciers, and thus even if true is not nearly as critical a process.

A paper in the review stage that I am reviewing this week by Sole et al (2012) indicates that glacier runoff amount influences basal melting of the floating sections of marine terminating outlet glaciers. The more runoff the greater the estuarine circulation which brings more warm ocean water up the fjord at depth. After 2000 GIS melt increased markedly and hence runoff. Given that we have seen acceleration of basically all Greenland Glaciers we cannot attribute this simply to ocean current changes, as these would not influence all sections of the coast equally. "Along-fjord heat transport towards KG increases significantly with both glacier runoff and coastal water temperature. A doubling of glacier runoff produces a 29% (48 %) amplification of mean annual 20 (summer) heat transport towards the KG terminus, increasing estimated mean annual (summer) submarine melt rates from 211 to 273 (842 to 1244)myr−1."

An update to the Qaleraliq Glacier retreat has an animated graph, see video, of ice sheet melt extent from the Tedesco et al (2012) Figure 2a static graph.

Aaron stop with the ice sheet is swiss cheese that will fall apart. Having worked on the Jakobshavn Glacier where there were plenty of moulins even in the 1980's and on other glaciers where there are streams and moulins every few meters, the physics of ice just does not support your hypothesis. We have observations and models of current and former glaciers that do have to reasonably approximate glacier behavior and they do, and there just is not a swiss cheese example.

Peter Sinclair noted above is not with Desmogblog, he has his own ClimateCrocks.com blog and makes videos for the Yale Climate Forum.

This is not a final paper, just a review draft submitted. I have reviewed it and those comments are published and I did recommend publication. You are correct Werther that some of the meltwater is still retained in the ice sheet and that the numbers will get worse. However, this meltwater does not weaken the ice, this is a part of the normal system in Greenland, just more of it. This meltwater can warm the ice locally which makes it flow a bit easier, though not significantly. In southern Greenland this summer Qaleraliq Glacier retreat indicates that even with glaciers that are not calving much, melting is taking its toll.

Bernice, the value you bring that a satellite cannot is the detailed ground truth. Sky truth is great but it does have limits. If you look at Figure 2.4 of the Arctic Report Card , you will see the distribution of the multi year ice you mention. At this level the satellite maps it well. On the ground though what is the percentage of the cover that is multiyear? An along track survey where you chronicle simply using GPS the percentage of the distance that you are on ice that first year versus young multi year or old multi year or even ice shelf fragmentswould be quite useful. There is a big difference between 90% multiyear ice and 70% multiyear ice in its mobility and pattern of melt out.

Symmetry the last ice yields the last first expedition which is rowing the NW passage next year.

Northern Alaska climate change has not been friendly to glaciers in northern Alaska either, Fork Glacier

Greenland-Antarctica the glacier response suggests a new bi-polar disorder. Now we are back to looking at retreat of Apuserajik Glacier in Greenland after having a look at Thwaites Glacier at the start of the week

Major calving event on Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica.

Werther did you see that a second rift paralleling the first has developed over the Austral winter on Pine Island Glacier, note bottom image in post from 9/17/2012

The change in terminus condition of some glacier will lead to increased calving. Mittie Glacier, Ellesmere Island is a new example. As has been pointed out many times meltwater lubrication is just not an important mechanism for acceleration of most of the big outlet glaciers of GIS. Nor has this occurred on land terminating glaciers. This is because there has been plenty of water beneath these large outlet glaciers, and adding more does not help. However, in northern Greenland there are a few outlet glaciers where possibly the amount of meltwater has been a limited factor.