Drifters dispersion in the Adriatic Sea: Lagrangian data and chaotic model
Abstract
We analyze characteristics of drifter trajectories from the Adriatic Sea with recently introduced nonlinear dynamics techniques. We discuss how in quasi-enclosed basins, relative dispersion as function of time, a standard analysis tool in this context, may give a distorted picture of the dynamics. We further show that useful information may be obtained by using two related non-asymptotic indicators, the Finite-Scale Lyapunov Exponent (FSLE) and the Lagrangian Structure Function (LSF), which both describe intrinsic physical properties at a given scale. We introduce a simple chaotic model for drifter motion in this system, and show by comparison with the model that Lagrangian dispersion is mainly driven by advection at sub-basin scales until saturation sets in.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.chao-dyn/9902014,
title = {Drifters dispersion in the Adriatic Sea: Lagrangian data and chaotic model},
author = {Guglielmo Lacorata and Erik Aurell and Angelo Vulpiani},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:chao-dyn/9902014},
year = {2007}
}