Methane is 60 times more potent than carbon dioxide and levels appear to have risen significantly for the past three years running, according to the Telegraph.
Experts in climate change have long feared that vast amounts of the greenhouse gas trapped in the frozen tundra of the Arctic could be unlocked by melting ice - which could trigger a "methane time-bomb".
Methane traps solar heat in the earth's atmosphere and scientists believe it could cause 60 times more global warming than carbon over a period of 20 years, though it also decays faster.
Professor Euan Nisbet, of Royal Holloway College of the University of London, and Dr Ed Dlugokencky of the Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder Colorado, will set out their findings in a presentation at the two-day conference on greenhouse gases at the Royal Society in London from February 22nd to 23rd.
Methane is combustible, and mixtures of about 5 to 15 per cent in air are explosive.
