
Rogue waves He attracted the attention of both sailors and scientists for decades. This is Isolated giant waves Which suddenly appears in the open circumference.
These perplexed giants are usually, it usually lasts less than a minute before disappearing. It can reach 65 feet (20 meters) or larger and is often twice the height of the surrounding waves. Once a marine legend, Rug waves have now been observed All over the world. Because they are very long and strong, they can pose a threat to ships and external structures.
To rethink the rogue waves and what causes them, Gather An international team of researchers. Our study, published in Nature Scientific reports, It sheds light on These oceanic giants using the most comprehensive data collection of its kind.
By analyzing 18 years of high -frequency laser measurements from the Ekofisk oil platform in the North Sea, we reached a sudden conclusion that the rogue waves are not only Strange events. It arises according to the natural laws of the sea. It is not mysterious, but it is somewhat simple.
27500 state states
We analyzed approximately 27500 wave records, or sea countries, which were collected between 2003 and 2020 In the center of the North Sea. These records, which are taken every 30 minutes, describe the extent of sea level to the average sea level. It includes major storms, such as Andrea wave The event in 2007.
Under normal circumstances, waves arise from the winds that blow over the surface of the sea. It seems as if you were blowing a cup of coffee and forming small ripples on the surface. In the sea, with enough time and space, these ripples can turn into large waves.
We focused on understanding what the waves suddenly cause the rogue to wander and rise much over its neighboring waves. One of the proposed theories depends on the instability, a phenomenon described by complex sports models. I Review these models in the pastAnd my work also suggests that this theory does not completely explain what causes the rogue waves in the open ocean.
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When the waves are held inside a narrow channel, the amended instability theory describes its movement well. but, It begins to collapse When you look at the real ocean. In open environments like the North Sea, the waves are free to spread from multiple directions.
To understand the teams, imagine a crowd of spectators who leave a stadium after a football match. If the outlet is a long, tight corridor with long walls, people are forced to move in one direction. Those who are in the back pushing forward, some may climb on others, and accumulate between the confined walls. This catastrophic bonding resembles a rogue wave, caused by imprisonment.
In contrast, if the stadium exit opens on a wide field, spectators can separate freely in all directions. They do not pay each other, and they avoid accumulation.
Likewise, researchers can generate rogue waves in a channel confined to the laboratory, where they obey the stability instability. But without imprisoning the channel, the rogue waves do not follow these physics or form the same way in the open sea.
Our team knew that we had to study the open sea directly to find out what is really going on. Do not line up data in the real world that my team from the North Sea has examined with numbered instability-it tells a different story.
It is just a bad day in the sea
We analyzed the seafood records using statistical techniques to detect patterns behind these rare events. The results we have reached show that instead of the average instability, the extremist waves that were probably noted through a process called constructive overlap.
Construction overlap It occurs when two or more waves are lined up and gathered in one large wave. This effect is amplified by the natural Sea waves are not consistent with Their top is usually more severe and more severe than their ponds.
The rogue waves are formed when many smaller waves are lined up and their most severe stab watches begin, and the construction in one huge wave rises briefly over its surroundings. All it takes to ride the calm boat to turn into a bad day in the sea is a moment when many regular waves converge.
These rogue waves rise and decrease in less than a minute, after the so -called almost specific pattern in place and time. This type of patterns can be identified and repetitive, but with random touches. In an ideal environment, this randomness will disappear almost, allowing rogue waves to grow to almost countless heights. But it will also take eternity to see one of these waves, as many will have to lined up perfectly. Like waiting for Fortuna, the goddess of Chance, to roll a trillion and get it almost all of them.
In the real ocean, the nature limits the size of the rogue wave that can grow thanks Breakage. With the height of the wave in length and energy, it cannot exceed itself Nobility. The tip of the wave leaks and moves in the foam, or Whitecap, which releases excess energy.
The semi -specified pattern behind the rogue waves
The rogue waves are not limited to the sea. Construction interference can occur for many types of waves. A general theory is called Semi -wavesWhich was developed by the ocean photographer Paulo BukotiHe explains how rogue waves are formed, whether in the ocean or in other wave systems.
For example, As for the troubled water that flows through a canalThe rogue wave is manifested in the form of an intense and short height in the swirls-patterns of spinning swirls in water that grow more moments while moving in the direction of the river course.
Although the ocean waves seem unexpected, Boccotti shows that severe waves are not completely random. When a really large wave is formed, the waves around the sea are followed around a pattern that can be recognized by constructive overlap.
We applied Boccotti theory to determine and characterize these patterns in the records of the measured North Sea wave.

The giant waves that were observed in these records carry a kind of signature or fingerprint, in the form of a Wave groupWhich can reveal how the rogue wave appeared. Think about a wave group like a small group of waves moving together. It rises, peak and then fades through constructive overlap. These wave groups are tracked for researchers to understand the largest image of a rogue event where it reveals.
For example, a powerful storm struck the North Sea on November 24, 2023. A camera on the Ekofis platform acquired a huge wave of 55 feet (17 meters). I have applied almost inevitable theory and You have a model To investigate the origin of this extremist wave. My analytical revealed that the rogue event follows these theories-similar to the inevitable and constructive intervention-from multiple smaller waves that accumulate over and over again.
The realization of how the rogue waves can help engineers and designers to build safer ships and external platforms – and better predict the risks.
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