Experimental study of spatiotemporally localized surface gravity water waves

Abstract

We present experimental results on the study of spatiotemporally localized surface wave events on deep water that can be modeled using the Peregrine breather solution of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. These are often considered as prototypes of oceanic rogue waves that can focus wave energy into a single wave packet. For small steepness values of the carrier gravity waves the Peregrine breathers are relatively wide, thus providing an excellent agreement between the theory and experimental results. For larger steepnesses the focusing leads to temporally and spatially shorter events. Nevertheless, agreement between measurements and the Peregrine breather theory remains reasonably good, with discrepancies of modulation gradients and spatiotemporal symmetries being tolerable. Lifetimes and travel distances of the spatiotemporally localized wave events determined from the experiment are in good agreement with the theory.