Friday, October 3, 2014
Researchers study the physics of large waves
An international team of researchers is investigating how lasers and optical fiber can be used to understand freakishly large waves that threaten ships on the ocean.
"Rogue waves are so rare that examining them at sea is next to impossible," said Dr. Miro Erkintalo of the University of Auckland’s Department of Physics.
Rogue waves are unusually large waves that form at sea without warning that can have great destructive power. Once thought to be myths, in recent decades scientists have been able to prove they exist through direct observation. These freak waves have been suggested as the cause of a number of maritime disasters.
Optical physicists are interested in such rogue waves because laser light can behave like waves at sea. Under certain conditions, the mathematical models that describe light and ocean waves are the same.
Optical "instabilities" can be seen as "optical rogue waves" that are comparable to their counterparts at sea. The difference between the two forms of wave instability is that one can be conveniently studied in a laboratory and the other cannot.
"Luckily we can study them using analogous optical laboratory experiments that are designed to mimic the behavior of ocean waves," said Erkintalo. "Optical fiber systems are particularly suitable for this purpose."
"This is still a very long way away, but experiments in optics are providing new insights into the mechanisms that lead to giant waves on the ocean."
The research was published in the prestigious journal Nature Photonics and conducted by Professor John M. Dudley (University of Franche-Comte, France), Professor Frédéric Dias (University College Dublin, Ireland), Dr. Miro Erkintalo and Professor Goëry Genty (Tampere University of Technology, Finland).
For more of the University of Auckland story: www.auckland.ac.nz
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