Kuwait Bay: an attempt at explaining why the mean residence time and its standard deviation are almost equal to each other at any location
(2026) , 33 pages
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- Abstract
- Using a Lagrangian particle tracker, Scherpereel et al. (Mar. Pollut. Bull., 2025) computed the position-dependent mean residence time in Kuwait Bay. Additional numerical results (first presented herein) indicate, quite surprisingly, that at any point of the domain of interest the standard deviation of the residence time is almost equal to the mean residence time. We develop a one-dimensional, purely diffusive model aimed at idealising transport processes in Kuwait Bay. We calculate the relevant Green's function and derive analytical expressions of various timescales. The idealised mean residence time and its standard deviation are rather close to each other, leading us to assume that transport processes are of a diffusive nature at the scale of Kuwait Bay. Many aspects of the idealised model are explored in detail and, presumably, a few novel results are established. We also outline a more elaborate analytical model representing a variety of diffusive features in semi-enclosed domains, ranging from the well-mixed box to the idealised Kuwait Bay model — depending on the ratio of the timescale related to mixing within the domain to the timescale controlling the outward flux through the open boundary.
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Citations
Deleersnijder, E., & Scherpereel, C. (2026). Kuwait Bay: an attempt at explaining why the mean residence time and its standard deviation are almost equal to each other at any location. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/276619