Anomalous wave as a result of the collision of two wave groups on sea surface

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates through numerical simulations that the collision of two wave groups on the sea surface can produce anomalously large rogue waves, highlighting a common natural mechanism for their formation.

Contribution

It introduces a nonlinear simulation approach showing how wave group collisions can generate rogue waves, a novel insight into their natural formation process.

Findings

Collision of wave groups can produce rogue waves

Anomalous waves are significantly taller than linear predictions

This mechanism is common in natural ocean conditions

Abstract

The numerical simulation of the nonlinear dynamics of the sea surface has shown that the collision of two groups of relatively low waves with close but noncollinear wave vectors (two or three waves in each group with a steepness of about 0.2) can result in the appearance of an individual anomalous wave whose height is noticeably larger than that in the linear theory. Since such collisions quite often occur on the ocean surface, this scenario of the formation of rogue waves is apparently most typical under natural conditions.