

Rogue waves - btilly
http://bentilly.blogspot.com/2010/03/rogue-waves.html

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kurtosis
If anyone is interested in a more tractable experimental platform for the
study of this effect - it has also been observed for light propagating in an
optical fiber. There is an interesting analogy between the nonlinear wave
propagation effects believed to be responsible for ocean rogue waves and those
responsible for optical effects like supercontinuum generation.

Here's a recent nature paper where researchers observed "optical rogue waves"
in the light propagating through a microstructured optical fiber.

<http://www.ee.ucla.edu/~oecs/comp_pub/intr_opt/Optics154.pdf>

This follows the pattern of solitons - they were first observed in a boat
canal, and later found in optics.

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swombat
So wait a minute... you're telling me that:

1) Ships are built to withstand normal waves, and have a high likelihood of
sinking if hit by a rogue wave.

2) Rogue waves are a regular feature of the ocean, frequent enough that a
number of ships every year will be hit by rogue waves.

3) These rogue waves can effectively occur anywhere in the ocean.

4) Despite this, commercial liners, cruise ships, tankers, etc, continue to go
out to sea, taking sometimes hundreds of people with them.

Is this basically saying that this common mode of transportation is inherently
unsafe and to be avoided? It's one thing to say that "shit happens, and if
something goes wrong with the plane, you're fucked", and another altogether to
say "we know that this will happen, for sure, one out of X times, no matter
how well we may prepare, and it will most likely sink the ship". X may be
rather large, but the point is it could be prepared against, but it's not.

~~~
roc
That's not unlike the situation with airliners and downbursts in the 70s and
80s. A not-uncommon atmospheric effect, rumored, then known, then studied, led
to one out of X planes falling out of the sky.

But we still put people on planes.

The unsettling difference, that you hit on, is: when Fujita finally got
through to the FAA, planes and pilots were quickly brought up to speed; but
the sea transport industry has seen the rogue wave research and doesn't seem
to be particularly interested in changing anything.

~~~
pchristensen
Probably because they ship many more goods than people, and goods don't care
if they drown, so long as their owners' insurance claims are paid.

