A new kind of Lagrangian diagnostic family is proposed and a specific form of it is suggested for characterizing mixing: the maximal extent of a trajectory (MET). It enables the detection of coherent structures and their dynamics in two- (and potentially three-) dimensional unsteady flows in both bounded and open domains. Its computation is much easier than all other Lagrangian diagnostics known to us and provides new insights regarding the mixing properties on both short and long time scales and on both spatial plots and distribution diagrams. We demonstrate its applicability to two dimensional flows using two toy models and a data set of surface currents from the Mediterranean Sea.
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