A 62-foot wave was recorded in the North Atlantic. How'd they measure it?
Wave monitoring is part of international efforts for the purposes of maritime interests and science.
Wave monitoring is part of international efforts for the purposes of maritime interests and science.
Somewhere in the North Atlantic Ocean in 2013, a wave-recording buoy floated higher than a buoy has ever floated before.
The World Meteorological Organization announced on Tuesday a new world record for 鈥渟ignificant wave height鈥� as measured by a buoy, after a sensor climbed to 62.3 feet in a stretch of ocean between Iceland and the United Kingdom.
That tops the previous record of 59.96 feet, set in 2007, also in the North Atlantic.聽
鈥淭his is the first time we have ever measured a wave of 19 meters. It is a remarkable record,鈥� said Wenjian Zhang, assistant secretary general at the WMO, in a statement.
It鈥檚 the latest oddity to make the archive of extreme-weather events kept by the agency, along with a 2-pound hailstone that thudded down over Bangladesh in 1986 and the 1.25 inches of rain that fell in a single minute in Maryland in 1956, notes Arizona State University鈥檚 School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.聽
The present record may underscore the value of international efforts 鈥� like buoys that record data on ocean swells, currents and temperatures 鈥� that benefit climate research, marine science, and the shipping industry.
鈥淚t highlights the importance of meteorological and ocean observations and forecasts to ensure the safety of the global maritime industry and to protect the lives of crew and passengers on busy shipping lanes,鈥� said Dr. Zhang.
鈥淲e need high quality and extensive ocean records to help in our understanding of weather/ocean interactions,鈥� he added. 鈥淒espite the huge strides in satellite technology, the sustained observations and data records from moored and drifting buoys and ships still play a major role in this respect.鈥�
The North Atlantic is famed for its harsh weather: wind circulation patterns and atmospheric pressure during wintertime often create intense extra-tropical storms, meaning that the region from the Grand Banks plateaus off of Canada鈥檚 Newfoundland up to the south of Iceland and off Britain's west coast produce most of the world's wave records, according to the WMO.
The latest wave isn鈥檛 exactly the biggest wave ever: as the BBC noted in 2014, there鈥檚 a difference between measurements taken from ships (where one wave in the North Atlantic topped 95 feet in 2002), video footage (as big surf waves are usually analyzed), and wave-riding buoys.
鈥淸Wave-riding buoys] don't aspire to measure individual waves, they aspire to take a sensible average of three-wave parcels,鈥澛犅爏aid Dr. Kevin Horsburgh, head of marine physics and ocean climate at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), in聽a 2014 interview.
鈥淚f you use different-sized buoys you actually get different readings, so it's a very ongoing area of research to find the most reliable and consistent wave measurement,鈥� he said then.