Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net 1023-5809 1607-7946 11 1 2004 10.5194/npg-11-17-2004 http://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/11/17/2004/ http://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/11/17/2004/npg-11-17-2004.html http://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/11/17/2004/npg-11-17-2004.pdf 17 33 2004-02-25 Computation of hyperbolic trajectories and their stable and unstable manifolds for oceanographic flows represented as data sets A. M. Mancho D. Small S. Wiggins School of Mathematics, University Walk, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1 TW, UK In this paper, we describe a unified algorithm for locating and computing hyperbolic trajectories, and then computing their stable and unstable manifolds, for finite time velocity fields in the form of a data set defined on a space-time grid. The algorithm is applied to a turbulent regime of a quasigeostrophic wind-driven double gyre in a rectangular domain.