A new regional-scale multibeam echosounder bathymetric dataset of the Saudi Arabian Red Sea

Abstract

Abstract. High-resolution bathymetry is a critical resource for marine research, underpinning seafloor characterisation, benthic habitat mapping, geomorphological analyses, and marine spatial planning. In the Red Sea, however, publicly accessible high-resolution bathymetric data remain extremely limited along the eastern margin. Existing regional products such as the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) provide only coarse resolution coverage, and detailed surveys have historically been concentrated along the central axis rather than the Saudi Arabian shelf and slope. Here, we present a high-resolution bathymetric dataset acquired during the 2022 Red Sea Decade Expedition (RSDE) along the Saudi Arabian margin of the Red Sea (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19065211, Marchese et al., 2026). Multibeam echosounder surveys span approximately 860 km of coastline and extend from shallow coastal waters to deep-sea environments, covering depths from ∼ 2 m > 2460 m. Data were acquired using multiple platforms and processed through a standardised workflow to produce a unified digital bathymetric model. Grid resolutions are 5 m for the shallow-water data and 40 m for the deep-water data, covering a total of 49 418.7 km2 of seafloor. This dataset provides unprecedented spatial coverage of the eastern Red Sea seafloor and represents a key resource for marine sciences and marine spatial planning in a region where available detailed bathymetry has historically been limited.