Antarctic glaciers drain ice from the mountains to lower levels, where it either melts, breaks away into the sea as icebergs or feeds into an ice shelf.

New satellite data show that hundreds of glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula are flowing at a faster rate, contributing to the rise in sea level.

Using radar images from Europe's ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites, scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) tracked the flow rate of over 300 previously unstudied glaciers.

They found a 12 percent increase in glacier speed from 1993 to 2003.

The observations show a melting process similar to that found among glaciers in Greenland that flow directly into the sea.

As the glaciers thin through melting, the buoyancy of the ice can lift them off their rock beds, allowing them to slide faster.

The new BAS study results have given scientists a clearer picture about the way that climate warming can affect glaciers both in the Arctic and Antarctic. They may also pave the way for more reliable projections of future sea level rise, and provide a better basis for policy decisions, according to BAS.