'Rogue waves' reported by mariners get scientific backing

[Bud]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... cience_sea

PARIS (AFP) - European satellites have given confirmation to terrified mariners who describe seeing freak waves as tall as 10-storey buildings, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

"Rogue waves" have been the anecdotal cause behind scores of sinkings of vessels as large as container ships and supertankers over the past two decades.

But evidence to support this has been sketchy, and many marine scientists have clung to statistical models that say monstrous deviations from the normal sea state only occur once every thousand years.

Testing this promise, ESA tasked two of its Earth-scanning satellites, ERS-1 and ERS-2, to monitor the oceans with their radar.

The radars send back "imagettes" -- a picture of the sea surface in a rectangle measuring 10 by five kilometers (six by 2.5 miles) that is taken every 200 kms (120 miles).

Around 30,000 separate "imagettes" were taken by the two satellites in a three-week project, MaxWave, that was carried out in 2001.

Even though the research period was brief, the satellites identified more than 10 individual giant waves around the globe that measured more than 25 metres (81.25 feet) in height, ESA said in a press release.

The waves exist "in higher numbers than anyone expected," said Wolfgang Rosenthal, senior scientist with the GKSS Research Centre in Geesthacht, Germany, who pored over the data.

"The next step is to analyse if they can be forecasted," he said.

Ironically, the research coincided with two "rogue wave" incidents in which two tourist cruisers, the Bremen and the Caledonian Star, had their bridge windows smashed by 30-metre (100-feet) monsters in the South Atlantic.

The Bremen was left drifting without navigation or propulsion for two hours after the hit.

In 1995, the British cruise liner Queen Elizabeth II (news - web sites) encountered a 29-metre (94.25-feet) wall of water during a hurricane in the North Atlantic.

Its captain, Ronald Warwick, likened it to "the White Cliffs of Dover."

In the next phase of research, a project called Wave Atlas will use two years of "imagettes" to create a worldwide atlas of rogue wave events and carry out statistical analyses, ESA said.

The goal is to find out how these strange, cataclysmic phenomena may be generated by ocean eddies and currents or by the collision of weather fronts, and which regions of the seas may be most at risk.

Finding out could help ship architects and the designers of oil rigs and their operators to skirt the menace.

[megaprober]

i likie it. bud there's a scientist in you. i strongly suggest that you excersize the demons within. the largest wave...storm wave ever recorded or witnessed was that wave in the north atlantic. in fact, the north atlantic seems to be the area where they are most frequently spotted. i'll throw some reasoning at you alter today as to why and where the future of wavelust tow surfing will be done.

[malekos]

:D i'll throw some reasoning at you alter today as to why and where the future of wavelust tow surfing will be done.

he needs some time to go thru all his books, online articles, and research at UH funny how he can never just give an answer. it's always wait til later

(please don't get to upset )

[regulator]

shut the fuck up, makelo.

if you can't say anything with truth, goodness, or usefulness, then just keep yer fucking mouth shut, punk.

we need more guys like you to be surfing the bowel, we ain't had any worthy fighters for awhile.

i'm still ready for you, ANYTIME, ANYPLACE. YOU WANNA DO WEAPONS, LIKE IN A DUEL OR SOMETHING? your choice, asshole.

STEP UP OR SHUT UP. GUYS LIKE YOUSE IS ALL FUCKING LIP.

(i'ld hate it for your wife, cuz you ain't got any cahones at all, just LIP)

[olly]

are you guys serious? can't a thread go by without anyone threatening to kill someone
go surfing or something

[puhi]

mr.olly,

do you honestly want to hear this shit from this asshole day in, day out? this man has nothing nice to say about anyone excepting his own self!

if you try to have a conversation, he calls you a kiss ass???

don't tell me that i'm alweays negative, cuz i ain't. i only adresss the situation as i see it should be adressed.

this asshole mouths off, and all you wanna do is NOTHING?

THEN, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM, FOR ALLOWING HIM TO CONTINUE UNCHECKED.

some of you all are pathetic, spineless, yellow bellied frikking WIMPS.

if someone attacks, you DEFEND. 99% of you just roll over and die. sheep/cattle. no make waves, viz.

if you or i don't fight for ourselves, then THEY win again.

case in point: overthrow of the kingdom of hawaii... was done without resistance, hawaiians just laid down and gave up.

i say FUCK THAT.

OLLY, maybe you forget what race first polluted te hawaiian culture??? just look at the state flag, in the upper left hand corner. look familiar?

[LGREANZ]

Intresting. If this type of stuff intrest you then you should pick up a copy of "the Perfect Storm" by Sebastian Junger.

The movie was great and all but reading that book you get alot of knowledge about how the ocean, winds and wave interact to create rouge waves.

It is a tragic but great story. He also paint a picture of what it would be like to go down with a sinking vessel and drown.
Pretty intense stuff.

[olly]

yes it does. there's no welsh flag represented there.
I'm not going to get into this. i just think maleko has a unique sense of humor that i by no means agree with, but nor does it particularly bother me. I could see that megaprober could be bothered by strangely personal and unnecessary comments, but threats to fight someone over the internet seem just as empty. I really had no intention of antagonising this, i was trying to be light hearted.
i'm not going to post about this again, i'm here to surf and to share information about surfing. I shouldn't have posted anything. my mistake

[Binky & Dino]

Brah! What is wrong wid you??? You're comparing the overthrow to some pointless on-line attacks!! Again, we're all praying for ya in OCCC.

Friends til we die,
Binky, Dino

P.S. Mahalo for all the rides to the beach

[maleko]

shut the fuck up, makelo.

keep yer fucking mouth shut, punk.


i'm still ready for you, ANYTIME, ANYPLACE. YOU WANNA DO WEAPONS, LIKE IN A DUEL OR SOMETHING? your choice, asshole.

FUCKING LIP.

this saturday 7/24/04, ka'ena pt. at the light house. 1a.m. wear all black, bring whatevah weapon you need.

[HMARK]

So...If I figger this shit right ----

The next step is to analyse if they can be forecasted," he said.

Sounds like the wheels are turning already? Are there those that are trying the forecasting out now?

I think it would be stoke to see the Jaws/Outta reef boys in 25MM(?) suits and the like - ( NOT SARCASM ) I think it would be Giant day to see...

[HMARK]

BTW -

Nice post Bud. Really. Very innaressing stuff Good on Ya. Hope ya got some quality surftime in - Did ya see Cameron?

[Jahsurs]

This is a good article too, gives a brief run down of the difference between tsunami's and rogue waves.....

check out the 4th paragraph, says tsunami's and exceed 500 MPH in the open ocean, HOLY CRAP!!!! Don't want any part of that!!

[/quote]

[Jah]

Ooops, here's the link again....

http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/educ/science/1997/05-05-97.htm

[HMARK]

Some more stuffs on rouge waveage

http://www.math.uio.no/~karstent/waves/index_en.html

Kinda innaressing