Nonlinear Turbulence Simulations for NSTX H-modes
Authors: M. H. Redi, S. Kaye, W. Dorland, R. Bell, C. Bourdelle, S. Ethier, D. Gates, G. Hammett, K. Hill, B. LeBlanc, D. McCune, J. Menard, D. Mikkelsen, G. Rewoldt, E. Synakowski
Date of PPPL Report: June 2004
To be presented at: the Thirty-First EPS Conference on Plasma Physics, 28 June - 2 July 2004, London, United Kingdom.
Present evidence points to remarkably resilient electron temperature profiles in high-density H-mode plasmas on the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), suggesting that the underlying electron thermal transport mechanisms respond in a highly nonlinear fashion to changes in the gradients. This paper uses measured plasma profiles as input to linear gyrokinetic analysis to identify candidate micro-instabilities that may be responsible for the electron thermal transport. The criteria for useful nonlinear micro-stability analyses are discussed along with necessary approximations and computational issues.