Consistent Boundary Conditions for Age Calculations

Abstract

Age can be evaluated at any time and position to understand transport processes taking place in the aquatic environment, including for reactive tracers. In the framework of the Constituent-oriented Age and Residence time Theory (CART), the age of a constituent or an aggregate of constituents, including the water itself, is usually defined as the time elapsed since leaving the boundary where the age is set or reset to zero. The age is evaluated as the ratio of the age concentration to the concentration, which are the solution of partial differential equations. The boundary conditions for the concentration and age concentration cannot be prescribed independently of each other. Instead, they must be derived from boundary conditions designed beforehand for the age distribution function (the histogram of the ages, the age theory core variable), even when this variable is not calculated explicitly. Consistent boundary conditions are established for insulating, departure and arrival boundaries. Gas exchanges through the water–air interface are also considered. Age fields ensuing from consistent boundary conditions and, occasionally, non-consistent ones are discussed, suggesting that the methodology advocated herein can be utilized by most age calculations, be they used for diagnosing the results of idealised models or realistic ones.

Keywords

• partial differential equations
• boundary conditions
• geophysical and environmental fluid flows
• reactive transport
• interpretation methods
• diagnostic timescales