What is meant by "a length typical of the large-scale vorticity distribution"?

35 Views Asked by At

Apologies if this isn't the right place for this question. I guess it's somewhat research-related, but it seemed too basic to ask on mathoverflow.

I'm working through a paper (pdf) involving a technique to redistribute points along a contour. The details aren't really important, I don't think. All I'm trying to understand is what is meant by:

L is a length typical of the large-scale vorticity distribution

[Bottom of third page of the pdf, right after the centred equations]

Can someone explain what this means?