On the interaction of wind and freak waves due to modulational instability

International audienceFreak waves are generated numerically by means of modulational instability. Their interaction with wind is investigated. Wind is modeled as Jeffreys' sheltering mechanism. Contrary to the case without wind, it is found that wind sustains the maximum of modulation due to the Benjamin-Feir instability. The general kinematic behavior observed for freak waves due to dispersive focusing is recovered here, even if the underlying physics are different in both cases