Sufficiency of purely statistical criteria for rogue wave characterization

Ascertain whether rogue waves can be fully characterized using only statistical thresholds on wave height distributions, without reference to the spectral properties of the wave field.

Background

The paper adopts a stricter statistical threshold (H ≥ 8σ_H) for extreme events in bending waves to align occurrence rates with wave-tank observations of rogue waves, noting that traditional significant-height criteria are either too permissive or too restrictive in this system.

This raises the question of whether a purely statistical definition suffices for rogue waves, independent of spectral information that captures wavefield structure.