On Hokusai's great wave off Kanagawa: Localization, linearity and a rogue wave in sub-antarctic waters

• Published in: Notes and Records of the Royal Society
• Main Authors: Dudley, John Michael, Sarano, Véronique, Dias, Frédéric
• Other Authors: Franche-Comté Électronique Mécanique, Thermique et Optique - Sciences et Technologies (UMR 6174) (FEMTO-ST), Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbeliard (UTBM)-Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et des Microtechniques (ENSMM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Franche-Comté (UFC), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC)-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC), Longitude 181, School of Mathematical Sciences Dublin, University College Dublin Dublin (UCD)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: [SPI.OPTI]Engineering Sciences [physics]/Optics / Photonic; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-OPTICS]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Optics [physics.optics]; Antarctic; Cartwright; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00908667; https://hal.science/hal-00908667/document; https://hal.science/hal-00908667/file/On_Hokusai_s_great_wave_off_Kanagawa_2013_preprint.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2012.0066

International audience The Hokusai woodcut entitled The great wave off Kanagawa has been interpreted as an unusually large storm wave, likely to be classed as a rogue wave, and possibly generated from nonlinear wave dynamics (J. H. E. Cartwright and H. Nakamura, Notes Rec. R. Soc. 63, 119-135 (2009)). In this paper, we present a complementary discussion of this hypothesis, discussing in particular how linear and nonlinear mechanisms can both contribute to the emergence of rogue wave events. By making reference to the Great wave's simultaneous transverse and longitudinal localization, we show that the purely linear mechanism of directional focusing also predicts characteristics consistent with those of the Great wave. In addition, we discuss the properties of a particular rogue wave photographed on the open ocean in sub-Antarctic waters, which shows two-dimensional localization and breaking dynamics remarkably similar to Hokusai's depiction in the woodcut.