Large waves and navigation hazards of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

We present a statistical analysis of deep-water buoy measurements of large waves generated during two major storms of the Eastern Mediterranean in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The largest waves observed do display similar characteristics to those of the Draupner, Andrea, and El Faro rogue waves in that second order bound nonlinearities enhance the linear dispersive focusing of extreme waves. We also present a novel analysis of waves in space-time to predict potential risks posed by such large waves to navigation. In particular, we consider the scenario of two types of vessels of the Israeli Navy fleet navigating during the most intense stages of the two storms considered here and provide predictions for the largest waves likely to be encountered.