Investigating the nature and dynamical properties of rogue waves

Rogue waves damage marine infrastructure and pose a grave threat to ships. The immense height and force of these waves can lead to shipwrecks, capsizing, loss of cargo, and loss of lives. However, the frequency of their occurrence and the mechanisms that lead to the formation of rogue waves in real oceans are poorly understood.

With climate change, it is envisaged that such extreme events will occur more frequently. An improved understanding of the phenomenon would allow more accurate prediction, hazard mitigation and monitoring of long-term trends.

Rogue waves have been generated in the laboratory, but detailed field studies are rare. Therefore their statistical prevalence is unknown, and the physics underlying the generation and propagation of these waves in real-world oceans are poorly understood. Rogue waves have been reported where the overall background seastate is not particularly severe.

In contrast to storm waves, this makes them far more challenging to track and forecast, and so predict their long-term trends. However, it also increases the potential for rogue wave signals within the wealth of measured individual wave data now available for shelf sea environments.