Gyrokinetic simulation of pedestal turbulence using GENE

Abstract

We present here a study based on gyrokinetic simulations (using GENE) to model turbulence in the pedestals on several well-diagnosed shots: two H-modes on DIII-D and one I-mode on Alcator C-Mod. We match frequencies, power balance, and other transport characteristics in multiple channels with the observations. The observed quasi-coherent fluctuations on the DIII-D shots are identified as Micro Tearing Modes (MTM). The MTMs match frequency and power balance (together with heat loss from Electron Temperature Gradient (ETG) driven turbulence), and cause low transport in the particle, ion heat and impurity particle transport channels – consistent with observed inter-ELM evolution of ion and electron temperature, electron and impurity density or transport analysis of those channels. We find the Weakly Coherent Mode on C-Mod I-mode to be an electrostatic Ion Temperature Gradient/Impurity density gradient (ITG/Impurity) driven mode. The ITG/Impurity mode match frequency and the impurity confinement time observed on the I-mode. Electron scale turbulence, ETG, provides energy transport to match power balance. A novel concept called the transport fingerprints is used throughout this work, which greatly assists in identifying the instabilities. This work shows that the concept should be very valuable in many future investigations of pedestal turbulence.Physic

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