Fluid parcel

In this reference frame, fluid parcels are labelled and followed through space and time.

But also in the Eulerian frame of reference the notion of fluid parcels can be advantageous, for instance in defining the material derivative, streamlines, streaklines, and pathlines; or for determining the Stokes drift.

[1] The fluid parcels, as used in continuum mechanics, are to be distinguished from microscopic particles (molecules and atoms) in physics.

Fluid parcels describe the average velocity and other properties of fluid particles, averaged over a length scale which is large compared to the mean free path, but small compared to the typical length scales of the specific flow under consideration.

This requires the Knudsen number to be small, as is also a pre-requisite for the continuum hypothesis to be a valid one.