Rogue waves, or “badass waves,” are enormous waves that appear suddenly and can engulf helpless ships and sea-goers.
However, a new artificial intelligence model can now predict most of these waves up to five minutes in advance.
According to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, data collected from eyewitness accounts between 2011 and 2018 shows that rogue waves have caused 386 deaths and sunk 24 ships.
By using nearly 16 million data points collected at half-hour intervals from a network of 172 ocean buoys, researchers trained an AI program to distinguish wave patterns indicative of rogue waves.
The AI program successfully predicted the arrival of 3 out of 4 rogue waves one minute in advance. When the prediction window was extended to five minutes, it accurately forecasted 7 out of 10 rogue waves.