Abstract
The problem of assessing the risk for a vessel to encounter a killer wave in the Black Sea is considered. Analysis of in situ wave data obtained from the platform of Marine Hydrophysical Institute in the autumn of 2009 shows that occurrence frequency of abnormally high waves (freak, rogue, or killer waves) varies considerably on the time scale of several hours. It is shown that the formation of such waves is associated with nonlinear processes in the wave field, presumably, with the development of modulational instability. Ninety percent of the total number of killer waves was observed in the swell wave system, and 70% of them propagated approximately in wind direction. We propose a scenario of the killer waves formation in the Black Sea. The scenario was confirmed by numerical reconstruction of the wind and wave fields in the Black Sea for the history of storms on Oct. 14, 2009 in Katsiveli and on Feb. 01, 2003 in Gelendzhik, using the MM5 mesoscale atmospheric model and the WAM-C4 wave model. A practical approach to assessing the risk for a vessel to encounter a killer wave in the Black Sea is presented.
Highlights
Extreme high sea waves have long been known legends and folklore of many countries
This paper presents analysis of the field data collected in the Black Sea from the research platform in Katsiveli, in the autumn of 2009
It has been shown that the anomalously high waves are due to nonlinear processes in the wave field
Summary
Extreme high sea waves have long been known legends and folklore of many countries. In English literature, the most common names are “freak waves” and “rogue waves”, i.e., the unusual, bizarre, wondering waves, which appear “from nowhere”, even in the absence of strong wind, and stand out from the surrounding wind waves because of their abnormal height and steepness. Its main purpose is to show the applicability of the viewpoint that the formation of killer waves in the Black Sea is mainly the result of modulational instability of swell waves and that a particular danger is associated with the situation when swell waves propagate in the direction of wind.
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