PHYSICAL REVIEW FOCUS 1 September 2006 http://focus.aps.org/
David Ehrenstein, American Physical Society
Introductions to the Focus stories of the past week;
visit http://focus.aps.org for the complete stories.
WAVES OF DESTRUCTION
The movie Poseidon features a giant wave that comes out of
nowhere to flip a star-packed ocean liner. Such freakishly tall
waves in the middle of the ocean are no longer considered
fictional, thanks in part to recent satellite observations and
computer simulations. In the 1 September PRL, a team describes
a new simulation where two wave trains meet at an angle. They
observed so-called rogue waves appearing more rapidly and
looking more realistic than in other simulations. Researchers in
the field hope that better understanding of the causes of such
waves will lead to improved ship designs and better forecasts of
wave conditions.
(P. K. Shukla et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 094501)
Link to the paper: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v97/e094501
COMPLETE Focus story at http://focus.aps.org/story/v18/st7
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Copyright 2006, The American Physical Society.
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