Lasers replicate extreme weather events Rogue simulator Studies
in the laboratory involving pulsing lasers could lead to a
warning system that will alert ships to the imminent approach of
a devastating freak wave. The research led by Professor Nail
Akhmediev from the Australian National University's Research
School of Physics and Engineering, in collaboration with French
and Spanish researchers is published in the latest Physical
Review Letters . According to Akhmediev their work uses lasers
to replicate waves of extreme amplitude, also known as freak or
rogue waves, and shows these waves are more common than thought.
Freak waves are steep waves that can appear to come out of
nowhere. They can be hundreds of metres long and can be two to
three times higher than the surrounding waves at the time. At
one time they were considered to be a myth, however in 2001
satellites captured more than 10 giant waves more than 25 metres
high during three weeks of data collection. While rogue waves,
have been studied for the