Equivalence between rogue waves and statistical extreme events regardless of steepness or energy

Determine whether rogue waves can be treated purely as statistical extreme events independent of wave steepness and kinetic energy content, or whether steepness and energy must be included in their characterization.

Background

The authors find that periods containing extreme events have kinetic energy per unit mass close to the average and only moderately higher steepness, suggesting that amplitude extremes need not coincide with markedly elevated steepness or energy.

This observation motivates assessing whether rogue waves are distinguishable from generic statistical extremes without invoking steepness or energy constraints.