Spatiotemporal response of plasma edge density and temperature to non-axisymmetric magnetic perturbations at ASDEX Upgrade

Abstract

Non-axisymmetric magnetic perturbations (MPs) were successfully applied at ASDEX Upgrade to substantially reduce the plasma energy loss and peak divertor power load that occur concomitant with type-I edge localized modes (ELMs). The response of electron density edge profiles and temperature and pressure pedestal-top values to MPs are reported. ELM mitigation is observed above an edge density threshold and independent of the MPs being resonant or non-resonant with the edge safety factor. The edge electron collisionality appears not to be appropriate to separate mitigated from non-mitigated discharges for the present high-collisionality plasmas. No significant change in the position or gradient of the edge density profile could be observed for the transition into the ELM-mitigated phase, except from the effect of the three-dimensional MP field which leads to an apparent profile shift. An increase in the density and decrease in the temperature at the pedestal-top balance such that the pressure saturates at the value of the pre-mitigated phase. The plasma stored energy, the normalized plasma pressure, and the H-mode quality factor follow closely the evolution of the pedestal-top pressure and thus remain almost unaffected. The temporal evolution of the ion effective charge shows that the impurity content does not increase although flushing through type-I ELMs is missing. The type-I ELMs are replaced in the mitigated phase by small-scale and high-frequency edge perturbations. The effect of the small bursts on the density profile, which is correlated with a transient increase of the divertor thermoelectric current, is small compared with the effect of the type-I ELMs. The residual scatter of the profiles in the mitigated phase is small directly after the transition into the ELM-mitigated phase and increases again when the pressure saturates at the value of the pre-mitigated phase.