Most mornings since the end of March, before Will Hobbs has done much at all other than make a coffee, he scrolls his inbox looking for one particular email.
Generated and sent automatically from a colleague, the email arrives just after 4am and gives the latest data from a US government satellite showing how much sea ice is floating around Antarctica.
"Unprecedented is a word that gets bandied around a lot, but it doesn't really get to just how shocking this is," said Hobbs, a sea ice scientist at the University of Tasmania. "It is very much outside our understanding of this system." In February, the floating sea ice around Antarctica hit a record low for the second year running. Since satellites started tracking the region's ice in 1979, there had never been less ice.
As it does every year, as the temperatures around the continent plunged towards winter, the sea ice started to return. But the moderate alarm from scientists at that record low has turned to astonishment. Some are worried they could be witnessing the start of a slow collapse of Antarctica's sea ice.
By August, there would usually be about 16.4 million sq km of Antarctic sea ice. But last week, there was just 14.1 million sq km. An area bigger than Mexico has failed to freeze.
"There's a sense that something weird is going on. It's dropping way below anything we have seen in our record," said Dr Walt Meier, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado.
Meier's job is to help collate and present data from US satellites that have been recording sea ice since November 1978. It is the same data that gets presented in Hobbs' daily email and the same data that has been turned into charts and spread on social media around the world in recent weeks.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Starlink's conquest of the Amazon leaves Brazil in a dilemma
The helicopter swooped into one of the most inaccessible corners of the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian special forces commandos leaped from it into the caiman-inhabited waters below.
Dalai Lama's mountain town feels the strain of tourist boom
SUVs and saloon cars pass slowly along McLeod Ganj's narrow one-way Jogiwara Road, blaring horns at pedestrians and scooter riders and playing loud music.
'I am all the world' The brutal rule of a West Bank settler
Palestinians tell ofblacklisted Yakov's reign across the Jabal Salman valley and heisjust one of many violent bosses
Stormy waters New flashpoint emerges in South China Sea dispute
Hopes that tensions in the South China Sea might ease have been short lived.
'Justice delayed' Why trust in public inquiries to bring closure is fading
After the final report of the Grenfell fire inquiry was published, Hisam Choucair, who lost six family members in the blaze, said: \"We did not ask for this inquiry... It's delayed the justice my family deserves.\"
Celeriac soup with almond pangrattato
I'm not ashamed to say that as soon as September hits, my stick blender comes out. Just as I embrace salads when the clocks go forward in the UK, I wholeheartedly throw myself into soup season once the summer holidays end. Autumn is approaching in the northern hemisphere and I'm ready with my ladle. Celeriac is one of my favourite soup heroes, because it gives the creamiest, silkiest finish with little effort. You don't have to make the almond pangrattato, but it is a wonderful addition.
Are smoke signals telling me to make an oil change in the kitchen?
Should you that is, not can you) cook with extra-virgin olive oil? Antonio, Atlanta, Georgia, US
Going underground
A darkly humorous encounter between an American spy-cop and the members ofan eco-commune she is hired to infiltrate
All work and no play
Hard Graft, a powerfulnew London exhibition, focuses onworkers’ exploitation, from the ruined hands ofa washerwoman to mothers forced to sell their bodies
What the princess and the shaman tell us about hereditary privilege
It should have been an Instagram-perfect wedding image, but it turned out to be something more embarrassing.