Rogue Waves More Common than Previously Thought

file photo — Rogue wave photograph taken from the deck of the RV Cape Henlopen in the western North Atlantic.

University of Miami scientist Professor Mark Donelan believes that rogue waves aren’t as rare as previously thought. He has captured new information about extreme waves as a result of information gained when one of the steepest ever recorded passed by the North Sea Ekofisk platforms in the early morning hours of November 9, 2007.

The Andrea wave passed by a four-point square array of ocean sensors designed by the researchers to measure the wavelength, direction, amplitude and frequency of waves at the ocean surface.

Using the information from the wave set—a total of 13,535 individual waves—collected by the system installed on a bridge between two offshore platforms, the researchers took the wave apart to examine how the components came together to produce such a steep wave.

The data from the 100-meter (300-foot) wide “wall of water” moving at 40 miles per hour showed that Andrea may have reached heights greater than the recorded height of 49 feet above mean sea level.

They also found that rogue waves are not rare as previously thought and occur roughly twice daily at any given location in a storm. The findings showed that the steeper the waves are, the less frequent their occurrence, which is about every three weeks at any location for the steepest rogues.

The Andrea crest height was 1.63 times the significant height (average height of the one third highest waves). Optimal focusing of the Andrea wave showed that the crest could have been even higher and limited by breaking at 1.7 times the significant height. This establishes the greatest height rogues can reach for any given (or forecasted) significant height.

The study, titled “The Making of the Andrea Wave and other Rogues,” was published in the March 8 issue of the journal Scientific Reports. The authors include Donelan and Anne-Karin Magnusson from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. The work was partly performed within the ExWaMar project funded by the Norwegian Research Council. ConocoPhillips provided the wave data.

The study is available here.