High waves in Draupner seas — Part 1: numerical simulations and characterization of the seas

Extreme waves are studied in numerical simulations of the so-called Draupner seas that resemble the wave situation near the observation area of the Draupner wave, an iconic example of a freak, rogue wave. Recent new meteorological insights describe these seas as a substantial wind-generated wave system accompanied by two low-frequency lobes. With the significant wave height \(H_\mathrm{s}=\) 12 m above a depth of 70 m and the wide directional spreading over 120\(^\circ \) as design information, results are presented of simulations of phase resolved waves. Quantitative data are derived from 8000 waves over an area of 15 km\(^2\). Very high waves with crest heights exceeding 1.5 \(H_\mathrm{s}\) occur in average in 20 min timespan over an area of 0.8 km\(^2\). Details will be given for an isolated freak wave and a sequence of 3 freak crest heights in a group of 2 high waves. In Part 2, van Groesen and Wijaya (J Ocean Eng Mar Energy, 2017), it will be shown that 60 s before their appearance freak waves can be predicted from radar images on board of a ship that scans the surrounding area over a distance of 2 km.