Recreation of Famous Japanese Rogue Wave

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In summary: two waves of different height and frequency are traveling in opposite directions and approach each other, their peaks will merge and create a much higher amplitude wave.
  • #36
sophiecentaur said:
They can be so extreme that they actually send up a vertical jet of water. don't get carried away by the experience or you could end up with a wet downstairs ceiling. :))

Like this:



Cheers
 
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  • #37
In the Kon Tiki expedition they described going over a train of three such waves, close up and intimate.
 
  • #38
The team successfully decoded the rogue wave's recipe: It simply needs two smaller wave groups that intersect at an angle of about 120 degrees, they found.
...
However, when waves cross at large angle (in this case, 120 degrees), wave-breaking behavior changes. As waves crisscross, the horizontal fluid velocity under the wave crest gets canceled out and so the resulting wave can grow taller and taller without crashing. "Thus plunging breaking no longer occurs and upward jet-like breaking, as illustrated in our video [see below], occurs. And, seemingly, this second type of breaking does not limit wave height in the same way," McAllister said.
https://www.livescience.com/64567-famous-great-freak-wave-recreated.html
 
  • #39
Thanks for sharing @Keith_McClary . But that article and video were too popularized. I would like to see the actual peer reviewed paper by the researchers.
 
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Likes Tom.G
  • #42
The paper linked by @Keith_McClary does indeed provide a lot of light on this case. Thank you Kieth.

In a quick read, I see that almost all theories and explanations offered in this thread (harmonic, dissipative focusing, and wave breaking) are mentioned in the paper. I think all of us have been partially correct.

I would summarize it, but it would be better to read it yourself. The following is IMO a dramatic passage from the paper.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-fluid-mechanics/article/laboratory-recreation-of-the-draupner-wave-and-the-role-of-breaking-in-crossing-seas/65EA3294DAFD97A50C8046140B45F759/core-reader said:
Under crossing conditions, the breaking mechanism observed became fundamentally different. Figure 4 shows the onset of breaking when ΔΔ=120∘ . As the crossing waves combine, a jet forms that propels the water upwards. In this case, much of the horizontal motion is canceled out at the point of focus and this results in a partial standing wave. Typical plunging-type breaking is not observed. The formation of vertical jets on standing waves, which has parallels with wave impact on walls ..., has been examined by a number of authors ... Its occurrence is significant for two reasons. First, this form of wave breaking can be associated with extremely large fluid accelerations of the order of 10−100×g (... Second, this breaking mechanism does not directly limit the achievable wave height. In figure 5, the onset of breaking is shown for ΔΔ=60∘ . Here, as the waves combine, breaking occurs along the confluence of the two crests. A mixture of horizontal and vertical motion is observed in a combination of the effects observed in figures 3 ( ΔΔ=0∘ ) and 4 ( ΔΔ=120∘ ).

WOW, up to 100g vertical acceleration!

One thing the paper does not say (nor could it) is that the mechanism investigated is the one and only mechanism for rogue waves.
 

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