Predicting the breaking onset of surface water waves

Why do ocean waves break? Understanding this important and obvious property of the ocean surface has been elusive for decades. This paper investigates causes which lead deep‐water two‐dimensional initially monochromatic waves to break. Individual wave steepness is found to be the single parameter which determines whether the wave will break immediately, never break or take a finite number of wave lengths to break. The breaking will occur once the wave reaches the Stokes limiting steepness. The breaking probability and the location of breaking onset can be predicted, properties of incipient breakers measured. Potential applications to field conditions are discussed.