AN international research project has pinpointed new ways to predict the impacts of climate change.

Experts from St Andrews and Edinburgh universities collaborated with scientists from Sheffield, Cambridge and San Diego to examine the changes in 10 large Greenland glaciers over a 20-year period.

They say their findings, based on satellite data, could help us work out when and by how much sea levels are due to rise.

The news comes against a backdrop of a glacier-related emergency in Greenland. Low-lying areas of one village were evacuated over the threat posed by a massive iceberg 500 metres offshore. And footage emerged of a four-mile long-berg which broke from a glacier last month.

Earthquakes and tsunamis have created major floods in Greenland in recent years and the Greenland Ice Sheet holds enough water to raise sea levels by around seven metres.

It is expected to be a major source of sea level rise in the near future.

Study leader Dr Tom Cowton, of St Andrews University, stated: “While we cannot predict the detailed retreat of individual glaciers, our findings enable us to approximate likely retreat rates based on air and ocean warming scenarios.”

He went on: “This information can then be fed into the large-scale ice sheet models that are used to predict sea level rise.”

The study is based on data from 1993 until 2012 and is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

It found a “clear relationship” between the rate of glacier retreat and climactic warming.

The work also discovered that variations in ocean temperature help to explain key discrepancies in glacier retreat along the country’s east coast.

In recent years, some glaciers have experienced periods of rapid retreat, while others have remained comparatively stable.

In south-east Greenland, major glaciers retreated by several kilometres as regional air temperatures went up from 2000-05.

Meanwhile, those in the north-east remained much more stable even though air temperatures warmed by similar margins.

The team attributed this difference to variations in ocean waters.

Warmer ocean conditions are said to have melted the submerged parts of marine-terminating glaciers, encouraging undermined blocks to tumble into the sea as icebergs.

In contrast, colder waters were found to suppress this process, which may then make the glaciers more resilient to the warming air temp- eratures.

The research emerged as critics hit out at Tory Aberdeen South MP Ross Thomson over social media comments about warming seas around the UK. The politician tweeted happy face, thumbs up and shark emojis in response to reports that rising temperatures could bring 10 new shark species to the northern waters within a decade.

Broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts, who appeared on hit BBC series Coast, was among those to question the tweet. Responding, Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie said: “I know, I know. We’ve all seen some guff from this guy. But ‘smiley face & thumbs up for climate change’ really does leave me wondering about his grasp on reality.”