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Statistics of surface gravity wave turbulence in the space and time domains

Our new technique for simultaneous time and space measurements of wave elevations was used to measure spectra and higher order moments of surface wave turbulence in a large laboratory flume. For the first time, the results show the coexistence of a Gaussian random wave field with the coherent structures of breaking waves. We develop a new model which connects random waves with coherent structures within one energy cascade and demonstrate that the high moment approach to statistical data processing allows extraction of geometrical characteristics of the coherent structures. These results have wider applicability to other types of chaotic fields.