PASADENA, Calif. – NASA-funded researchers have created the first complete map of the speed and direction of ice flow in Antarctica. The map, which shows glaciers flowing thousands of miles from the continent's deep interior to its coast, will be critical for tracking future sea-level increases from climate change. The team created the map using integrated radar observations from a consortium of international satellites.

The first detailed map of ice flow across the entire continent of Antarctica has been developed, showing "amazing flows" from the continent's center.

"We're seeing amazing flows from the heart of the continent that had never been described before," said researcher Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California at Irvine and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "This is like seeing a map of all the oceans' currents for the first time."

Scientists at UC Irvine have created a first-ever map of glaciers across the Antarctic continent, revealing new details of speed and movement that should prove critical in forecasting sea-level rise from global warming.

The scientists stitched together billions of data points from a variety of satellite measurements, uncovering a glacial tributary reaching farther inland than expected as well as previously unknown formations moving as fast as 9,000 feet or more per year over thousands of miles toward the Antarctic coast.

One climate-science conundrum, two research teams, two independent approaches, two seemingly conflicting conclusions.

The unsolved mystery, or perhaps now, twice-solved mystery: Why did atmospheric methane levels, steadily on the rise since record-keeping began, abruptly level off and stabilize in the last three decades?

Methane, which is primarily found deep within the earth and deep within the guts of microbes, is one of the most potent greenhouse gases, second only to carbon dioxide in its impact.