Abstract
Temporally irregular, large spatial scale, fluid advection of passive tracers occurs in a wide variety of situations. Our main point is that these situations can be conveniently conceptualized as resulting from successive application of a sequence of random maps. This viewpoint is numerically convenient and also provides a useful theoretical framework for dynamical-systems-based analyses of the resulting fractal patterns. Examples of three different situations are discussed: (i) the fractal distribution of passive scalar gradients, (ii) the fractal pattern formed by a scum floating on the surface of a moving fluid, and (iii) the pattern of particles entrained as they flow past an obstacle in an open flow.
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