Studies in the laboratory involving pulsing lasers could lead to a warning system that will alert ships to the imminent approach of a devastating freak wave.

The research led by Professor Nail Akhmediev from the Australian National University's Research School of Physics and Engineering, in collaboration with French and Spanish researchers is published in the latest Physical Review Letters.

According to Akhmediev their work uses lasers to replicate waves of extreme amplitude, also known as freak or rogue waves, and shows these waves are more common than thought.

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