The excitation of rogue waves in a variable medium: an experimental study on the interaction of water waves and currents

Abstract

We show experimentally that a stable wave propagating into a region characterized by an opposite current may become modulationaly unstable. Experiments have been performed in two independent wave tank facilities; both of them are equipped with a wavemaker and a pump for generating a current propagating in the opposite direction with respect to the waves. The experimental results support a recent conjecture based on a current-modified Nonlinear Schrödinger equation which establishes that rogue waves can be triggered by non-homogeneous current characterized by a negative horizontal velocity gradient.

5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Triggering rogue waves in opposing currents
• Approximate rogue wave solutions of the forced and damped Nonlinear Schrödinger equation for water waves
• Linear and Nonlinear Rogue Wave Statistics in the Presence of Random Currents
• On the nonlinear Schrödinger equation for waves on a nonuniform current

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• Wave turbulence and intermittency in directional sea states
• Surface Shear and Persistent Wave Groups
• Symmetric influence of forward and opposing tidal currents on rogue wave statistics