Ibrahim Hoteit

Oceans of Data: Understanding the Red Sea

Born in Beirut at the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War, Professor Ibrahim Hoteit grew up surrounded by danger and uncertainty. “I missed two years at school,” he shares, before joking that it was not so bad because he, “became very good at cards.” Hoteit had a natural talent for mathematics and “came from a family of scientists,” so it felt natural that after the disruption to his early education, he was encouraged into a career in academia. He completed his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. studies at Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France, and during his time there he developed a passion for applied mathematics. The rapid advance of satellite technology and the emergence of more-accessible supercomputers had created “a surge of scientific interest in ocean and atmospheric modeling and forecasting,” thus presenting Hoteit with pressing global challenges to which he would earnestly and diligently tailor his expertise.

By the time he joined KAUST in 2008 as one of its founding faculty, Hoteit had spent eight years in the United States at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a department at University of California San Diego. After completing a postdoc there, he remained as a research scientist, studying both the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico as part of the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) consortium. “The project there, which is still ongoing,” he shares, “was to collect all the available data in the ocean and reconstruct its history.” Hoteit is engaged in a similar project at KAUST, although now his attention has shifted to the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf.

Oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface and contain more than 95% of its water, so understanding them is key to understanding how the climate functions as a whole. Hoteit’s research involves interpreting as much information as possible from as many sources as possible to learn about the ocean, the atmosphere, and the relationship between them. He examines data from the past and present, then creates complex mathematical models that form the basis of computer simulations, which in turn can generate accurate forecasts for the future. While the data collection itself is not part of his remit – he’s “more of a numerical guy” – he simply cannot get enough of it, and ensures a constant supply through interdisciplinary links with colleagues in KAUST and industry or ministerial collaborations. Whether from ships, satellites, or weather stations, Hoteit’s role primarily involves “combining whatever data is available with the [computer] models to provide the best forecast.”

The amount of data involved in this type of work is truly enormous, and processing it requires nothing less than the world-class supercomputing facilities available at KAUST. Even still, the capabilities only allow for the study of isolated parts of the ocean. In an ideal world, Hoteit says, “we would study the whole globe because we want a closed system, but very quickly that becomes intractable in terms of computing.” That being said, the Red Sea – “our back yard” as Hoteit calls it – functions dutifully as a natural laboratory through which he and his team at KAUST’s Red Sea Modeling and Prediction Group can learn more about the global ocean and climate. The research they conduct therefore not only provides more accurate forecasting for Saudi Arabia and the wider region but furthers the ongoing quest to understand how the global climate functions in its entirety. This work is delivered in part through KAUST’s Virtual Red Sea Initiative, which provides vital information to projects around the Kingdom in their push toward Vision 2030.

There will always be more to learn about the ocean, and it requires a special combination of perseverance and ambition that Hoteit certainly seems to possess. “I don’t know how to do nothing,” he admits; “since I’ve come to KAUST I’ve never been bored.” In addition to the local contributions, his work will now also be used to further the global fight against climate change through the recently inaugurated KAUST Climate Change Center, in partnership with Saudi Arabia’s National Center of Meteorology. This opens new avenues for Hoteit as he works on “understanding our region, and its role in the global climate.” While his workload is always increasing, he feels fortunate to have found a home at KAUST. “We’ve been supported a lot by King Abdullah’s vision,” he says with gratitude, “so this is our way to give back.”