2023/10/03 by Alessandro Toffoli, Alberto Alberello, Toffoli, Alessandro +15
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Marine and environmental studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2310.01841
openalex publication_date 2023/10/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report direct observations of surface waves from a stereo camera system along with concurrent measurements of wind speed during an expedition across the Southern Ocean in the austral winter aboard South African icebreaker S.A.~Agulhas~II. Records include water surface elevation across a range of wave conditions, spanning from early stages of wave growth to full development. We give experimental evidence of rogue seas, i.e., sea states characterizided by heavy tails of the probability density function well beyond the expectation based on bound mode theory. These conditions emerge during wave growth, where strong wind forcing and high nonlinearity drive wave dynamics. Quasi-resonance wave-wave interactions, which are known to sustain the generation of large amplitude rogue waves, capture this behaviour. Wave statistics return to normality as the wind forcing ceases and waves switch to a full developed condition.