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The Draupner wave, also known as the New Year's wave or Draupner freak wave, was a rogue wave that was the first to be detected by a measuring instrument. The wave was recorded in 1995 at Unit E of the Draupner platform, a gas pipeline support complex located in the North Sea about 160 km (100 miles) southwest from the southern tip of Norway.

The rig was built to withstand a calculated 1-in-10,000-years wave with a predicted height of 20 m (64 ft) and was fitted with state-of-the-art sensors, including a laser rangefinder wave recorder on the platform's underside. At 3 pm on 1 January 1995, the device recorded a rogue wave with a maximum wave height of 25.6 m (84 ft). Peak elevation above still water level was 18.5 m (61 ft). The reading was confirmed by the other sensors. The platform sustained minor damage in the event. In the area, the SWH at the time was about 12 m (39 ft), so the Draupner wave was more than twice as tall and steep as its neighbors, with characteristics that fell outside any known wave model. The wave caused enormous interest in the scientific community.

Background

The Draupner platform rig, located in the Norwegian North Sea and 16/11 160 km (99 mi) offshore from Norway, was built to withstand a calculated 1-in-10,000-years wave with a predicted height of 20 m (64 ft) and was fitted with state-of-the-art sensors, including a laser rangefinder wave recorder on the platform's underside. At 3 pm on 1 January 1995, the device recorded a rogue wave with a maximum wave height of 25.6 m (84 ft). Peak elevation above still water level was 18.5 m (61 ft). The reading was confirmed by the other sensors. The platform sustained minor damage in the event. In the area, the SWH at the time was about 12 m (39 ft), so the Draupner wave was more than twice as tall and steep as its neighbors, with characteristics that fell outside any known wave model. The wave caused enormous interest in the scientific community.

Discovery

The wave itself was first detected on 1 January 1995 by a downward-pointing laser beam located on the Draupner S platform.

Records

See also

Notes and footnotes

Notes

1. The location of the recording was 58°11′19.30″N 2°28′0.00″E / 58.1886944°N 2.4666667°E / 58.1886944; 2.4666667

Footnotes

1. ^ "The last word: Terrors of the sea". TheWeek. 27 September 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
2. ^ Taylor, Paul H. (2005). "The shape of the Draupner wave of 1st January" (PDF). Department of Engineering Science. University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 2007-08-10. Retrieved 20 January 2007.
3. ^ Bjarne Røsjø, Kjell Hauge (2011-11-08). "Proof: Monster Waves are real". ScienceNordic. Archived from the original on 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2016-08-23. "Draupner E had only been operating in the North Sea for around half a year, when a huge wave struck the platform like a hammer. When we first saw the data, we were convinced it had to be a technological error," says Per Sparrevik. He is the head of the underwater technology, instrumentation, and monitoring at the Norwegian NGI ... but the data were not wrong. When NGI looked over the measurements and calculated the effect of the wave that had hit the platform, the conclusion was clear: The wave that struck the unmanned platform Draupner E on 1 January 1995 was indeed extreme.
4. ^ Susan Casey (2010). The Wave: In the Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean. Doubleday Canada. ISBN 978-0-385-66667-1.
5. Cavaleri, Luigi; Barbariol, Francesco; Benetazzo, Alvise; Bertotti, Luciana; Bidlot, Jean-Raymond; Janssen, Peter; Wedi, Nils (2016). "The Draupner wave: A fresh look and the emerging view". Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 121 (8): 6061–6075. doi:10.1002/2016JC011649. ISSN 2169-9291.