Presented by: Prof. Ibrahim Hoteit

Abstract: The talk will present our efforts to develop the next generation operational systems for the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf, as part of Aramco’s resolution toward the Fourth Industrial Revolution. These integrated systems, we refer to as iReds and iGulf, have been built around state-of-the-art ocean-atmosphere-wave general circulation models that have been specifically developed for the region and nested within the global weather systems. iReds and iGulf are now fully operational, routinely running on the KAUST supercomputer Shaheen. I will showcase the supporting real-time online visualization-analytics tools and servers that we are developing to provide a friendly human — information interface to analyze the large datasets that outputted by the systems.

The second part of the talk will outline some of our ongoing research activities to continue enhancing the systems performances and equipping them with new capabilities and features, discussing in particular: (i) the full coupling of the modeling components for more complete description of the regional physics, (ii) improving the forecasting skills through new ensemble data assimilation schemes accounting and providing information about the systems uncertainties, and (iii) developing new tools for forward and inverse tracking of oil spills under uncertain flow field. 

Biography: Ibrahim Hoteit is a professor in the Earth Sciences and Engineering program and affiliated with the Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences program at KAUST. He is currently leading the Virtual Red Sea Initiative, a joint initiative with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, MIT and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and serving as the director of the Saudi Aramco Marine Environment Research Center at KAUST. Dr. Hoteit's research interests focus on the modeling of oceanic and atmospheric systems on supercomputers and the analysis of their circulation and variability, with specific interest in data assimilation and uncertainty quantification for large-scale systems. Dr. Hoteit co-authored more than 250 papers and was awarded the prestigious Kuwait Prize in Basic sciences. He is serving as associate editor of Plos One, Computational Geosciences, Mathematics of Climate and Weather Forecasting, and Atmospheric Science Letters. He is a member of the American and European Geophysical Unions, the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and an elected member of the UNESCO Center of Pure and Applied Mathematics. Dr. Hoteit earned his M.S. (1998) and Ph.D. (2002) in applied mathematics from the University of Joseph Fourier, France.

The Graduate Seminar is mandatory for all ErSE and ERPE students. Kind reminder to sign the participants list before the start of the seminar in order to register your attendance.

NOTE to all: We are back in person, students - please visit the venue in Building 9, room 2325, to attend the seminar