A complex interaction between turbulence driven E × B zonal flow oscillations, i.e., geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs), the turbulence, and mean equilibrium flows is observed during the low to high (L-H) plasma confinement mode transition in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak. Below the L-H threshold at low densities a limit-cycle oscillation forms with competition between the turbulence level and the GAM flow shearing. At higher densities the cycle is diminished, while in the H mode the cycle duration becomes too short to sustain the GAM, which is replaced by large amplitude broadband flow perturbations. Initially GAM amplitude increases as the H-mode transition is approached, but is then suppressed in the H mode by enhanced mean flow shear.

Zonal flows (ZFs) and associated geodesic oscillations are turbulence-generated time-varying E r × B T rigid poloidal plasma flows with finite radial extent. They are of major interest for tokamak confinement since they are thought to moderate drift-wave turbulence and hence edge transport. However, detection of ZFs (believed to be driven by Reynolds stress) and Geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs) (linked with poloidal pressure asymmetries) is challenging since they appear predominantly as low frequency (few kilohertz) potential or radial electric field E r fluctuations. Presented here are measurements of GAM/ZF properties in ohmic, L-mode and H-mode ASDEX Upgrade tokamak discharges using a new Doppler reflectometry technique to measure E r fluctuations directly.

High spatial resolution radial profiles of the perpendicular plasma rotation velocity u ⊥ using a dual channel 50-75 GHz Doppler reflectometer system on the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak are presented for a variety of discharge scenarios, including Ohmic, L-mode, H-mode, etc with forward and reversed magnetic field and co-and counter neutral beam injection. The reflectometers have steppable launch frequencies f o = c/λ o , with selectable O-or X-mode polarization, giving tokamak edge to mid-radius coverage. Low-field-side antennae (hog-horn antenna pairs) with deliberate tilting (primarily poloidally) produce a Doppler shifted spectrum directly proportional to the perpendicular velocity f D = u ⊥ k ⊥ /2π = u ⊥ 2 sin θ t /λ o . The incident angle θ t between the beam and cut-off layer normal varies with plasma shape, cut-off layer position and refraction. However, typical angles range from 5˚to 27˚giving a probed turbulence wavenumber, k ⊥ , range of 1.8-14.3 cm −1 , with resulting Doppler shifts f D of up to 5 MHz. The measured perpendicular velocity is u ⊥ = v E×B + v phase , which for a typical H-mode is slightly positive in the tokamak scrape-off-layer with a deep negative well across the H-mode steep pressure gradient pedestal region and then following the perpendicularly projected toroidal fluid velocity in the core, should be dominated by the E × B velocity, as the intrinsic phase velocity is predicted to be small, which may allow u ⊥ to be interpreted directly as the radial electric field E r profile.