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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-3377</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Mimetic interpolation for finite-time Lyapunov exponent computation near irregular domain boundaries</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Pletzer</surname>
<given-names>Tamara</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3139-9224</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Pletzer</surname>
<given-names>Alexander</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Andrews</surname>
<given-names>Timothy C.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1392-847X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Lin</surname>
<given-names>Dongqi</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3955-5882</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Katurji</surname>
<given-names>Marwan</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3368-1469</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>School of Earth and Environment, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Research Education Advanced Network New Zealand (REANNZ), Wellington, New Zealand</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>The ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>14</day>
<month>09</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>13</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Tamara Pletzer et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3377/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3377/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3377/egusphere-2026-3377.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3377/egusphere-2026-3377.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Finite-time Lyapunov exponents (FTLEs) are widely used to identify Lagrangian coherent structures (LCS) in geophysical flows. Applying FTLEs to numerical model output requires reconstructing continuous velocity fields from discrete model grids, thus the resulting flow structures are sensitive to the interpolation method. This issue is particularly important for models with staggered-grid discretisations and complex solid boundaries, such as buildings, terrain and coastlines, where velocity components are defined at different locations and no-through-flow conditions must be respected. Most existing FTLE workflows assume co-located velocity components and do not explicitly account for fluid-solid boundaries during interpolation. Interpolating staggered velocities to cell centres before trajectory integration can therefore violate boundary conditions, producing unphysical particle paths, including trajectories that enter solid regions. Here, we present a flux-conservative, mimetic vector interpolation scheme that removes the co-location assumption while ensuring no-through-flow conditions at fluid-solid interfaces. We demonstrate the method using large eddy simulations of a wildfire plume in urban terrain. Compared with conventional interpolation, the mimetic approach produces boundary-aware trajectories and reveals coherent-structure geometries shaped by urban topography that are otherwise obscured. These results show that interpolation is not merely a numerical preprocessing step, but can directly affect inferred LCS geometries and their physical interpretation in staggered-grid simulations with complex boundaries.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="13"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Royal Society Te Apārangi</funding-source>
<award-id>RDF-UOC1701</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Climate Extremes</funding-source>
<award-id>CE170100023</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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