Please select your home edition
Edition
Rolly Tasker Sails 2023 LEADERBOARD

Science Speaks- Rogue Waves are Real

by Live Science/Sail-World on 2 Dec 2008
Rogue wave approaching on ship Nathaniel B Palmer SW
Every year sound sailing boats, well equipped with safety gear, with experienced crew on board, go missing. Their loved ones are forever left wondering: Was it a whale? a floating container? a rogue wave?

In the past, some scientists wrote off 'rogue waves' as rare or even mythology.


However, satellite data collected by the European Space Agency's (ESA) ERS satellites has confirmed what too many ship captains have come to know (and occasionally captured photographs). Ocean waves that rise as tall as ten-story apartment buildings are a leading cause of large ship sinkings.

The Norwegian Dawn, a 965-foot ocean liner , was sailing back to New York from the Bahamas on April 16 2005 when it was struck by a rogue 70-foot wave. The wave smashed windows and sent furniture flying, but the ship survived and the crew lived to record the wave's arrival.

A sailing boat faced with such a wave would have little chance of survival, and if it came at night, maybe not even the chance to hit the EPIRB.

A giant wave can form when strong winds beat against an opposing ocean current, when waves from different storms join forces, or when swells interact in strange ways with a particular seafloor.

Since 2005, Vijay Panchang at the A&M University at Galveston in Texas and his associates say they can accurately predict the daily height of waves anywhere off the coast of the United States for the next 48 hours across spaces as close as 500 yards apart.

A buoy off the coast of Alabama recently recorded an average wave height of 16 meters before the gauge broke, Panchang said. Since that figure is just an average of measurement of a sea-state, the biggest wave at that location was probably twice that size--32 meters, or about 100 feet.

'There were oil platforms destroyed,' said Panchang, who requires his wave mechanics students to read The Perfect Storm. 'The sheer magnitude of these things amazes me.'

Severe weather has sunk more than 200 supertankers and container ships more than 200 yards long in the past two decades, an ESA analysis found.

Counting waves from space:

The two ERS satellites equipped with radar carry out a global rogue wave census and arrive at the truth.

Without aerial, cloud-penetrating radar, scientists could only go on radar data on waves collected from oil platforms.

The radar instruments on the satellites detected the height of individual waves at the surface in 3-mile by 6-mile patches of the sea. Three weeks of data, including 30,000 of these patches or 'imagettes' of the sea with their wave height information were analyzed and searched for extreme waves at the German Aerospace Center.

A scientific team counted more than ten individual giant waves around the globe more than 75 feet high during the three-week period.

What can the cruising sailor do?

There are a few things that long range cruisers can do when setting off, apart from the obvious ones like never travelling close to a cyclone season, taking particular note of existing currents, and watching the weather like your life depends on it - because it does.

If there are different swells meeting, the other most obvious rule is to stay away from underwater mountains and ranges, where rogue waves are likely to develop if other conditions accumulate. There are many examples of underwater disturbances on the world's charts, eg. between Madeira and the Canary Islands, between Sydney and Lord Howe Island, and between Palmerston Atoll and Tonga.

Another underwater feature to be avoided is the underwater cliff, which often occurs close to coastlines. One of the most notorious of these is in the Bay of Biscay, where the depth changes from thousands of meters to a few hundred in a short distance.

To find examples of Vijay Panchang's wave predictions, which do not exist for all parts of the world, click here

Allen Dynamic 40 FooterX-Yachts X4.0Boat Books Australia FOOTER

Related Articles

Cape Horn Hall of Fame nominations close by 30 May
Public nominations open for just a little longer The International Association of Cape Horners (IACH) is calling for nominations for new inductees to the Cape Horn Hall of Fame.
Posted on 22 May
America's Cup: Emirates Team NZ respond
Emirates Team New Zealand has responded to the statements sent overnight (NZT) Emirates Team New Zealand has responded to the statements sent overnight by two Challenger teams calling for more transparency in the negotiations over the Protocol and venue for the 38th Match.
Posted on 22 May
World Foiling Congress 2025 concludes
Event attracted top industry leaders, experts, and stakeholders The second edition of the World Foiling Congress took place this week at Palazzo della Borsa in Genova (Italy), attracting top industry leaders, experts, and stakeholders from across the global Foiling Community.
Posted on 22 May
J/70 UK Grand Slam 2 at Royal Southern Yacht Club
7 races for the North Sails May Regatta Having suffered through some tough conditions in Grand Slam 1, the forecasts were looking hopeful for the second event of the UK J/70 Season. As we got closer to the event it was anyone's guess as to how the racing would pan out.
Posted on 22 May
6mR Worlds return to Seawanhaka Corinthian YC
Oyster Bay and Long Island Sound are renowned as some of the best sailing waters in the world Founded in 1871 and located on Oyster Bay, New York, SCYC is America's oldest yacht club and its association with the Sixes goes right back to the class's foundation in 1907.
Posted on 22 May
Steering the Course kicks off to #AccelerateAction
World Sailing's global women's sailing festival gets under way soon The 2025 edition of Steering the Course, World Sailing's global women's sailing festival, gets under way on 23 May with a week-long focus on #AccelerateAction in support of this year's International Women's Day theme.
Posted on 22 May
Solo McIntyre Mini Globe Race - 18,000 miles to go
Pirates, squalls, and paradise found The McIntyre Mini Globe Race fleet has officially fallen under the spell of the South Pacific—a place where dreams of palm-fringed beaches collide with the reality of torrential rain, viscous squalls, Loud lightening, questionable dinghy landings.
Posted on 22 May
Hyde Sails Flying Fifteen Video Tuning Guide
Ben McGrane explains how to get the most out of your B1 mainsail with B1 or 2H jibs Hyde Sails release new detailed video guide for tuning the Flying 15 for use with the B1 mainsail with B1 or 2H jibs.
Posted on 22 May
NYYC American Magic team statement
Concerns over transparency and cooperation necessary to secure a fair Protocol Over the past seven years, we've competed with pride, purpose, and perseverance in two editions of the America's Cup. It has been an honor to represent the New York Yacht Club and the United States on the global stage.
Posted on 22 May
Athena Racing concerned over 38th AC transparency
Around the recent announcement of a Host City for the Cup in 2027 Athena Racing, representing Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd. as Challenger of Record for the 38th America's Cup, is concerned by the ongoing lack of transparency around the recent announcement of a Host City for the Cup in 2027.
Posted on 22 May