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Prof. Mohammad Belal

Job Title
Principal Investigator
Site
Southampton

Biography

I am an atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physicist with broad research experience in experimental soft condensed matter, optoelectronics, high-power fiber lasers, optical-atomic-molecular spectroscopy, coherent atomic control, and quantum technologies. At NOC, I apply this expertise to develop next-generation intelligent monitoring systems for complex environments, including oceans, glaciers, cities, and terrestrial landscapes. Ocean Fibre Sensing (OFS), is one such initiative that I lead. OFS exploits optical-fibres within legacy submarine cables of energy and telecommunications, and transforms them into dense arrays of sensors with unprecedented (dense space-time) ambient environmental observations, alongside enabling cirtical insights into cable-health. Advanced signal processing/analytics combined with bespoke machine learning and artifical intelligence algorithms, not only bakes intelligence into OFS  but also preserves efficient analysis of large, multi-dimensional datasets, on high-performance compute architectures. On-the-fly analytics to data-streams (>10 GiB/s) has enabled exploration of alternative compute architectures (e.g., Quantum-based) to overcome classical compute bottlenecks.
My work combines physics, engineering, advanced signals-analysis and data science to provide high-resolution, wide-area insights, transforming complex measurements into clear visualizations and actionable information. Ultimately, these efforts aim to understand, manage, and respond to changes in marine, maritime, glacial, and urban environments, helping to quantify and protect our planet’s critical natural assets.

Projects

Ongoing PhD project:

  1. https://www.mindscdt.southampton.ac.uk/Project23
  2. https://www.mindscdt.southampton.ac.uk/Project%2029
  3. Physical sciences PhD projects | The University of Edinburgh

Funded (ongoing and upcoming) projects:

  1. SBRI-2020 (PI): Submarine High-fidelity Active-monitoring of Renewable energy Cables (SHARC)
  2. Trans National Access' 2021-A (PI): Fibre-optic Intelligent Submarine High-fidelity Environmental Sensing (FISHES)
  3. Trans National Access' 2021-B(PI): Sea-floor High-fidelity Optic-fibre-based Renewables-infrastructure Sensing and Evaluation (SeaHORSE)
  4. Progeny-Phase1 2022 (PI): Next Generation Underwater Sensing
  5. PycnoGen 2022-2027 (EP/X025136/1; Co-I): Generation of the global ocean internal pycnocline in the ice-covered Southern Ocean
  6. Progeny-Phase2 2023 (Co-I): Next Generation Underwater Communications
  7. NSF-NERC 2024-2027 (NE/Z000408/1; UK-PI): Collaborative Research: Direct comparison of ocean temperature and velocity structure from in-situ measurements and distributed optical fiber sensing
  8. GSRF 2024 - 2026 (NE/Y003365/1; PI)& Wide-area low-cost sustainable ocean temperature and velocity structure extraction using distributed fibre optic sensing within legacy seafloor cables
  9. Emso-Eric 2024 - 2026 (PI): Submarine noise-Evaluation and Analytics using Low-cost Sustainable -sensing (SEALS)
  10. MoD/QQ 2024 (4 months; PI): Geospatial Acoustic Underwater Smart Sensing (GAUSS)
  11. Xlinks 2024 (PI): Monitoring system evaluation
  12. SOUNDSCALE 2025 - 2027 (MR/Z505845/1; Co-I): Sensing On Urban Noise: Distributed Sensing For Collaborative And Sustainable Cityscapes And Living Environments
  13. FULL-OCEAN-FIBRE 2025 - 2028 (ARIA: Forecasting Tipping Points) 

Roles Provided

I lead Ocean Fibre Sensing (OFS) research at NOC. It comprises optoelectronic interrogation of optical fibres within submarine cables of energy and telecommmunications combined with advanced signal processing/analytics to enable intelligent, sustainable, wide-area, real-time monitoring of diverse and complex environments, e.g., oceans, glaciers, cities, and terrestrial landscapes whilst also monitoring cable-health. The intelligence layer is anchored in custom signal processing pipelines built in combination with machine learning and AI algorithms, allowing efficient analysis of large, complex, multi-parameter datasets. Compute enabling these advancements comprises advanced GPU-CPU architectures besides quantum compute exploration which is also underway to overcome classical-compute bottlenecks.
Profile photo

Related News

COMMS1207 SHARC DIAGRAM
News

New study turns subsea cables into powerful ocean sensors, unlocking vast streams of underwater data

SOUNDSCALE
News

NOC explores pioneering technology to monitor urban coastal environments in real time

Videos for my research

Below is a selection of videos on research that Belal is involved in.

How fibreoptic cables can listen to their environment

How fibreoptic cables can listen to their environment

Citizen panel & workshops: informing citizens from diverse backgrounds (social-geographical-economical) about fibre-optic sensing advantages to sound scaping urban-coastal environments

Citizen panel & workshops: informing citizens from diverse backgrounds (social-geographical-economical) about fibre-optic sensing advantages to sound scaping urban-coastal environments

Video: SOUNDSCALE Phase 1 - The Citizen Panel

Publications

Authors

Naveira Garabato, Alberto C.; Spingys, Carl P.; Lucas, Andrew J.; Dotto, Tiago S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0565-6941; Wild, Christian T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4586-1704; Tyler, Scott W.; Scambos, Ted A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4268-6322; Kratt, Christopher B.; Cappelli, Giuseppe ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4489-9791; Williams, Ethan F.; Claret, Mariona; Glover, Hannah E.; Wengrove, Meagan E.; Smith, Madison M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2259-042X; Baker, Michael G.; Marra, Giuseppe; Tamussino, Max; Feng, Zitong; Lloyd, David; Taylor, Liam; Mazur, Mikael; Mangriotis, Maria-Daphne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1765-9149; Micallef, Aaron; Ward Neale, Jennifer; Godin, Oleg A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4599-2149; Alford, Matthew H.; Gregory, Emma P. M.; Clare, Michael A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1448-3878; Shiri, Hamid; Ruiz Angulo, Angel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7292-3002; Gunn, Kathryn L.; Moat, Ben I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8676-7779; Yeo, Isobel A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9306-3446; Loureiro, Afonso ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3762-586X; Silvano, Alessandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6441-1496; Hartog, Arthur; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158. 2026 Distributed optical fibre sensing in physical oceanography: emergence and future prospects. Ocean Science, 22 (2). 1129-1167. 10.5194/os-22-1129-2026

Publication year

2026

Publication type

Article

Publication year

2025

Publication type

Article

Publication year

2025

Publication type

Article

Authors

Smith, Jack Lee; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Lythgoe, Karen; Spingys, Carl; Neale, Jennifer Ward; Embriaco, Davide; Curtis, Andrew. 2025 Azimuthal sensitivity and spatio-temporal decimation of data from distributed acoustic sensing on submarine cables for offshore earthquake early warning systems. Scientific Reports, 16 (1). 10.1038/s41598-025-29234-5

Publication year

2025

Publication type

Article

Authors

Drylerakis, Konstantinos Theofilos; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Mestre, Rafael; Norman, Timothy J.; Evers, Christine. 2024 Source detection and tracking for underwater distributed acoustic sensing. IEEE Xplore. 1292-1296. 10.23919/EUSIPCO63174.2024.10715378

Publication year

2024

Publication type

Article

Authors

Spingys, Carl P.; Garabato, Alberto C. Naveira; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158. 2024 Optical fibre sensing of turbulent-frequency motions in the oceanic environment. Scientific Reports, 14 (1). 10.1038/s41598-024-70720-z

Publication year

2024

Publication type

Article

Publication year

2024

Publication type

Article

Authors

Bayrakci, Gaye; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Clare, Michael A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1448-3878. 2023 Noisy Oceans: Monitoring Seismic and Acoustic Signals in the Marine Environment. American Geophysical Union, 288pp. (Geophysical Monograph Series).

Publication year

2023

Publication type

Book

Authors

Atherton, Chris; Pals, Auke; Jestin, Camille; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Strollo, Angello; Tilmann, Frederik. 2022 White Paper. Subsea telecoms cables: A driver for scientific research. Zenodo, 14pp.

Publication year

2022

Publication type

Monograph

Authors

Rojas Hernandez, Pablo G.; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Baker, Colin; Pidishety, Shankar; Feng, Yutong; Friebele, E. Joseph; Shaw, L. Brandon; Rhonehouse, Daniel; Sanghera, Jasbinder; Nilsson, Johan. 2020 Efficient extraction of high pulse energy from partly quenched highly Er3+-doped fiber amplifiers. Optics Express, 28 (12). 17124-17142. 10.1364/OE.385426

Publication year

2020

Publication type

Article

Authors

Saywell, Jack Cameron; Carey, Max; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Kuprov, Ilya; Freegarde, Tim. 2020 Optimal control of Raman pulse sequences for atom interferometry. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 53 (8). 10, pp. 10.1088/1361-6455/ab6df6

Publication year

2020

Publication type

Article

Authors

Carey, Max; Saywell, Jack; Elcock, David; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Freegarde, Tim. 2019 Velocimetry of cold atoms by matter-wave interferometry. Physical Review A, 99 (2). 10.1103/PhysRevA.99.023631

Publication year

2019

Publication type

Article

Authors

Pidishety, Shankar; Barua, Pranabesh; Shardlow, Peter C.; Hernandez, Pablo G. Rojas; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Feng, Yutong; Thipparapu, Naresh Kumar; Sahu, Jayanta K.; Nilsson, Johan. 2019 Short-wavelength, near-diffraction-limited beam, 792 nm cladding pumped efficient thulium-doped fiber laser in a power-scalable fiber design. In: 2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC), Munich, Germany, 23-27 June 2019. 1.

Publication year

2019

Publication type

Conference item

Authors

Carey, Max; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Himsworth, Matthew; Bateman, James; Freegarde, Tim. 2018 Matterwave interferometric velocimetry of cold Rb atoms. Journal of Modern Optics, 65 (5-6). 657-666. 10.1080/09500340.2017.1397222

Publication year

2018

Publication type

Article

Authors

Rojas Hernández, Pablo G.; Baker, Colin; Pidishety, Shankar; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Feng, Yutong; Friebele, E. Joseph; Burdett, Ashley; Rhonehouse, Daniel; Shaw, L. Brandon; Sanghera, Jasbinder; Nilsson, Johan. 2018 High-energy pulse amplification in partly quenched highly Er3+-doped fiber. [Poster] In: Advanced Solid State Lasers 2018, Boston, Massachusetts, 4–8 November 2018. AM6A.16.

Publication year

2018

Publication type

Conference item

Authors

Cameron Saywell, Jack; Elcock, David; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Kuprov, Ilya; Freegarde, Timothy. 2018 Optimal pulses for enhanced interferometer sensitivity and contrast. [Poster] In: Frontiers in Matter Wave Optics, Crete, Greece, 17 - 21 Sep 2018. (Unpublished)

Publication year

2018

Publication type

Conference item

Authors

Carey, Max; Cameron Saywell, Jack; Elcock, David; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Freegarde, Timothy. 2018 Cold atom velocimetry with a matterwave interferometer. [Poster] In: Frontiers in Matter Wave Optics, Crete, Greece, 17 - 21 Sep 2018. (Unpublished)

Publication year

2018

Publication type

Conference item

Authors

Carey, Max; Saywell, Jack; Elcock, David; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Freegarde, Tim. 2018 Velocimetry of cold atoms by matterwave interferometry. In: Quantum Optics 2018, Obergurgl, Austria, 25 Feb - 03 March 2018. (Unpublished)

Publication year

2018

Publication type

Conference item

Publication year

2018

Publication type

Article

Authors

Clare, M.A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1448-3878; Vardy, M.E.; Cartigny, M.J.B.; Talling, P.J.; Himsworth, M.D.; Dix, J.K.; Harris, J.M.; Whitehouse, R.J.S.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158. 2017 Direct monitoring of active geohazards: emerging geophysical tools for deep-water assessments. Near Surface Geophysics, 15 (4). 427-444. 10.3997/1873-0604.2017033

Publication year

2017

Publication type

Article

Authors

Carey, M.; Elcock, D.; Saywell, J.; Jones, S.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Freegarde, T.. 2017 Velocimetry, cooling and rotation sensing by cold-atom matterwave interferometry. In: Quantum Information and Measurement (QIM) 2017, Paris, France, 5–7 April 2017. QT5C.2.

Publication year

2017

Publication type

Conference item

Authors

Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Xu, L.; Horak, P.; Shen, L.; Feng, X.; Ettabib, M.; Richardson, D. J.; Petropoulos, P.; Price, J. H. V.. 2015 Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in suspended core tellurite microstructured optical fibers. Optics Letters, 40 (10). 2237. 10.1364/OL.40.002237

Publication year

2015

Publication type

Article

Authors

Ettabib, M. A.; Xu, L.; Bogris, A.; Kapsalis, A.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Lorent, E.; Labeye, P.; Nicoletti, S.; Hammani, K.; Syvridis, D.; Price, J. H. V.; Richardson, D. J.; Petropoulos, P.. 2015 Telecom to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in a Silicon Germanium Waveguide. In: Optical Fiber Communication Conference 2015, Los Angeles, California, 22–26 March 2015. Tu2C.5.

Publication year

2015

Publication type

Conference item

Authors

Ettabib, Mohamed A.; Xu, Lin; Bogris, Adonis; Kapsalis, Alexandros; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Lorent, Emerick; Labeye, Pierre; Nicoletti, Sergio; Hammani, Kamal; Syvridis, Dimitris; Shepherd, David P.; Price, Jonathan H. V.; Richardson, David J.; Petropoulos, Periklis. 2015 Broadband telecom to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in a dispersion-engineered silicon germanium waveguide. Optics Letters, 40 (17). 4118. 10.1364/OL.40.004118

Publication year

2015

Publication type

Article

Authors

Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Petrovich, Marco; Wheeler, Natalie; Wooler, John; Masoudi, Ali; Poletti, Francesco; Alam, Shaiful; Richardson, David; Newson, Trevor. 2014 First demonstration of a 2- μm OTDR and its use in photonic bandgap CO2 sensing fiber. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 26 (9). 889-892. 10.1109/LPT.2014.2309496

Publication year

2014

Publication type

Article

Authors

Jung, Y.; Shardlow, P. C.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Li, Z.; Heidt, A. M.; Daniel, J. M. O.; Jain, D.; Sahu, J. K.; Clarkson, W. A.; Corbett, B.; O’Callaghan, J.; Alam, S. U.; Richardson, D. J.. 2014 First demonstration of a 2μm few-mode TDFA for mode division multiplexing. Optics Express, 22 (9). 10544. 10.1364/OE.22.010544

Publication year

2014

Publication type

Article

Authors

Murugan, Ganapathy S.; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Grivas, Christos; Ding, Ming; Wilkinson, James S.; Brambilla, Gilberto. 2014 An optical fiber optofluidic particle aspirator. Applied Physics Letters, 105 (10). 101103. 10.1063/1.4895576

Publication year

2014

Publication type

Article

Authors

Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Sahu, J.K.; Alam, S.U.; Richardson, D.J.; Newson, T.P.. 2013 Demonstration of a 2um-OTDR. In: 39th European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communication (ECOC 2013), London, UK, 22-26 September 2013. 176-178.

Publication year

2013

Publication type

Conference item

Authors

Jain, S.; May-Smith, T. C.; Dhar, A.; Webb, A. S.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Richardson, D. J.; Sahu, J. K.; Payne, D. N.. 2013 Erbium-doped multi-element fiber amplifiers for space-division multiplexing operations. Optics Letters, 38 (4). 582. 10.1364/OL.38.000582

Publication year

2013

Publication type

Article

Authors

Masoudi, A; Belal, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Newson, T P. 2013 A distributed optical fibre dynamic strain sensor based on phase-OTDR. Measurement Science and Technology, 24 (8). 085204. 10.1088/0957-0233/24/8/085204

Publication year

2013

Publication type

Article

Publication year

2013

Publication type

Article

Authors

Ismaeel, Rand; Lee, Timothy; Ding, Ming; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Brambilla, Gilberto. 2012 Optical microfiber passive components. Laser & Photonics Reviews, 7 (3). 350-384. 10.1002/lpor.201200024

Publication year

2012

Publication type

Article

Authors

Zhang, Xueliang; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Chen, G. Y.; Song, Zhangqi; Brambilla, G.; Newson, T. P.. 2012 Compact optical microfiber phase modulator. Optics Letters, 37 (3). 320. 10.1364/OL.37.000320

Publication year

2012

Publication type

Article

Authors

Hermida-Merino, D.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Greenland, B.W.; Woodward, P.; Slark, A.T.; Davis, F.J.; Mitchell, G.R.; Hamley, I.W.; Hayes, W.. 2012 Electrospun supramolecular polymer fibres. European Polymer Journal, 48 (7). 1249-1255. 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2012.04.015

Publication year

2012

Publication type

Article

Authors

Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Newson, Trevor P.. 2011 Experimental examination of the variation of the spontaneous Brillouin power and frequency shift under the combined influence of temperature and strain. In: 21st International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors (OFS21), 2011, Ottawa, Canada, 15-19 May 2011. 775326.

Publication year

2011

Publication type

Conference item

Authors

Brambilla, G.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Jung, Y.; Song, Z.; Xu, F.; Newson, T.; Richardson, D.. 2011 Optical fibre microwire sensors. In: 21st International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors (OFS21), 2011, Ottawa, Canada, 15-19 May 2011. 77530C.

Publication year

2011

Publication type

Conference item

Authors

Pal, Bishnu P.; Ding, Ming; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Chen, George; Al-Azawi, Rand; Lee, Timothy; Jung, Yongmin; Wang, Pengfei; Zhang, Xueliang; Song, Zhanqgi; Xu, Fei; Lorenzi, Roberto; Newson, Trevor; Brambilla, Gilberto. 2011 Optical microfiber passive devices and sensors. In: SPIE/OSA/IEEE Asia Communications and Photonics 2011, Shanghai, China, 13-16 November 2011. 83070Y.

Publication year

2011

Publication type

Conference item

Authors

Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Song, Z.; Jung, Y.; Brambilla, G.; Newson, T. P.. 2010 Optical fiber microwire current sensor. Optics Letters, 35 (18). 3045. 10.1364/OL.35.003045

Publication year

2010

Publication type

Article

Publication year

2010

Publication type

Article

Authors

Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Song, Zhang-qi; Jung, Yongming; Brambilla, Gilberto; Newson, Trevor. 2010 An interferometric current sensor based on optical fiber micro wires. Optics Express, 18 (19). 19951. 10.1364/OE.18.019951

Publication year

2010

Publication type

Article

Authors

Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Cho, Yuh Tat; Ibsen, Morten; Newson, Trevor P. 2009 A temperature-compensated high spatial resolution distributed strain sensor. Measurement Science and Technology, 21 (1). 015204. 10.1088/0957-0233/21/1/015204

Publication year

2009

Publication type

Article

Authors

Mitchell, G.R.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Davis, F.J.; Elliott, D.E.; Kariduraganavar, M.; Mohan, S.D.; Olley, R.H.; Sen, Sujat. 2008 Defining structure in electrospun polymer fibres. Advanced Materials Research, 55-57. 33-36. 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.55-57.33

Publication year

2008

Publication type

Article