A New Algorithm Could Protect Ships From 'Rogue Waves' (cio.com)

itwbennett writes: MIT researchers have developed a tool they say can predict so-called rogue waves, giant waves that seem to appear out of nowhere and can cause devastation to ships unlucky enough to be struck by them. The researchers found that certain wave groups end up 'focusing' or exchanging energy in a way that eventually leads to a rogue wave. The tool they developed uses an algorithm that sifts through data from surrounding waves and computes a probability that a particular wave group will turn into a rogue wave within the next few minutes.

Comments

Re:The next few minutes?

[Trepidity]

Depends on the wave and the ship, but just turning the ship so it faces directly into the wave can be sufficient to greatly mitigate damage in a lot of cases. Being hit by an unexpected large wave broadside is typically worse than hitting it head-on, especially by reducing the risk of capsizing.

That's actually been successfully done at least once even with current technology: the captain of a cruise ship in 1998 spotted a 90-foot (27-meter) rogue wave on radar, and turned the ship to face it head-on, avoiding serious damage.