The Permanent Service of Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) collected raw data from three key sea level recording sites at Aden in Yemen, Karachi in Pakistan, and Mumbai in India.

The PSMSL interpreted this data to suggest that there had been a dramatic increase in sea level in the Indian Ocean.

But the researchers suggest that the PSMSL only uses higher sea level readings from the raw data, and discounts readings that show lower sea levels.

This caused their readings to suggest there had been a dramatic increase instead of a gentle rise in sea level.

The researchers used non-aligned data to reconstruct the most likely pattern of sea levels in the Indian Ocean.

They wrote: ‘Without arbitrary alignment of data, Aden exhibits very stable sea level conditions like those in Mumbai, India and Karachi, Pakistan, without any significant sea level trend.’

Dr Albert Parker and Dr Clifford Ollier, researchers at the University of Western Australia, are questioning measurements made by the Permanent Service of Mean Sea Level (PSMSL).