Why Significant Wave Height And Rogue Waves Are So Defined: A Possible Explanation

Authors

Laxman Bokati, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Olga Kosheleva, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow

Publication Date

10-2020

Comments

Technical Report: UTEP-CS-20-103

Abstract

Data analysis has shown that if we want to describe the wave pattern by a single characteristic, the best characteristic is the average height of the highest one third of the waves; this characteristic is called significant wave height. Once we know the value of this characteristic, a natural next question is: what is the highest wave that we should normally observe -- so that waves higher than this amount would be rare ("rogue"). Empirically, it has been shown that rogue waves are best defined as the ones which are at least twice higher than the significant wave height. In this paper, we provide a possible theoretical explanation for these two empirical facts.