Report from the Bering-Chuckhi area cold days still. http://arcticspring.org/multimedia/waiting-melt

The link must have calved off earlier today. It is the Upernavik Glacier that I was calling attention to that has a deeper-longer valley than we knew

Jakobshavn is the one glacier where the deep connection was well known. is a glacier where the deep connection was not. The width of these valleys is often deeper but also narrower than envisioned in older maps.

The bottom left is an area of sea ice, so not important. This was glacier ice during my first visit to the glacier in 1985.

Tenney good question the fjord does not extend below sea level more than a few kilometers under the northern branch. Whereas the southern branch remains quite deep for at least 75 km. The issues is not meltwater, but flotation. The more of the glacier that is floated by the water depth the more tidal flexure and the less of a pinning point the glacier base is. This arm will retreat toward the lip of fjord certainly but the main action is the southern arm.

Nice work as always by Espen Olsen. In looking at the Landsat images more closely for the southern portion of the terminus on May 9 and june 1. It is apparent that limited transverse surface rifting is evident. This would suggest a calving event due to a bottom crevasse or a progressive number of smaller iceberg calving events in quick sequence.

Another glacier in southwest Greenland that is reteating and accelerating, Kangiata Sermia.

Gerhard that is the Drygalski Ice Tongue which is fed by the David Glacier. It is not grounded but is well afloat. The tongue emerges from a deep trough with a thickness of 1200 meters. It thins as it spreads laterally and melt at the base t 500 m. This is still quite thick which gives it better stability than the Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves. http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/landsat_drygalski_vf_4web.pdf

Pine Island Glacier releasing iceberg as of 11/11/13, open water in the two year old rift.

Nicely done, reads like a thesis proposal. The recent cyclone has led to quite cloudy weather over nw Greenland, but lots of clear weather images from NE Greenland. Zachariae Ice Stream being one outlet with nice recent imagery including from Junea 17th, explanation at link above.

Examination of 79 Glacier, Greenland posted today, including Landsat imagery from 6/17/2013. 79 Glacier

Terry and Neven great idea on the collaborative. There are lots of platforms to do this. The key is to tell a good story and that means bringing the sea ice to some life. And the life on and under the sea ice into the story. And the glaciers meeting the sea ice in to the picture. If we each generate a few slides of what we do best animation etc. Those parts are the key to a good whole.

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.