A second electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) system has been installed on the KSTAR tokamak, toroidally separated by 1/16th of the torus from the first ECEI system. For the first time, the dynamical evolutions of MHD instabilities from the plasma core to the edge have been visualized in quasi-3D for a wide range of the KSTAR operation (B0 = 1.7∼3.5 T). This flexible diagnostic capability has been realized by substantial improvements in large-aperture quasi-optical microwave components including the development of broad-band polarization rotators for imaging of the fundamental ordinary ECE as well as the usual 2nd harmonic extraordinary ECE.
A dual-frequency microwave imaging reflectometry system was commissioned to measure both coherent and turbulent electron density fluctuations in KSTAR plasmas. Imaging of the density fluctuations is achieved with an array of 16 vertically aligned detectors and two X-mode probe beam frequencies (tunable over 78–92 GHz between plasma discharges). The system provides the capability of fluctuation measurements with poloidal wavenumbers (kθ) up to ∼3 cm−1 at the maximum sampling rate of 2 MHz. Following extensive laboratory tests, the system was further tested with known coherent density fluctuations during the precursor oscillation of the m/n = 1/1 internal kink mode. The phase information of the reflected beam was compared with the precursor oscillation of the electron temperature measured by an electron cyclotron emission (ECE) radiometer. Density fluctuation levels (δne/ne) at two radial positions separated by the inversion radius (inside and outside) were comparable to temperature fluctuation levels (δTe/Te) from ECE signals. Subsequently, two correlation analysis methods were applied to turbulent fluctuation measurements in a neutral beam heated L-mode plasma to determine the mean poloidal rotation velocities of density fluctuations at two radial positions. The measured mean poloidal velocities were ∼8.4 km s−1 at r/a ∼ 0.6 and ∼5 km s−1 at r/a ∼ 0.7 in the clockwise direction, which differed by 1–2 km s−1 with the projected poloidal velocities from the toroidal rotation velocity measured by charge exchange recombination spectroscopy.
A new and more accurate technique is presented for determining the toroidal mode number n of edge-localized modes (ELMs) using two independent electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) systems in the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device. The technique involves the measurement of the poloidal spacing between adjacent ELM filaments, and of the pitch angle α* of filaments at the plasma outboard midplane. Equilibrium reconstruction verifies that α* is nearly constant and thus well-defined at the midplane edge. Estimates of n obtained using two ECEI systems agree well with n measured by the conventional technique employing an array of Mirnov coils.
Temporal and spatial modulation of the edge localized mode (ELM) structure has been observed during the inter-ELM-crash period by toroidally-separated two electron cyclotron emission imaging systems. The observed modulation is interpreted as a beat wave of two modes with adjacent toroidal mode number. An additional assumption is that each mode has to have a different poloidal rotation speed. In nonlinear simulation, the low-n mode can be driven by locking between the dominant modes. The modulation is reconstructed using beat waves not the locking of modes.
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