Comparison of the spatial and temporal structure of type-I ELMs

Abstract

A comparison of the spatial and temporal evolution of the filamentary structures observed during type I ELMs is presented from a variety of diagnostics and machines. There is evidence that these filaments can be detected inside the LCFS prior to ELMs. The filaments do not have a circular cross section instead they are elongated in the perpendicular (poloidal) direction and this size appears to increase linearly with the minor radius of the machine. The filaments start off rotating toroidally/poloidally with velocities close to that of the pedestal. This velocity then decreases as the filaments propagate radially. By comparing the results from all measurements and from comparison with models it is most likely that the filaments have at least their initial radial velocity when they are far out into the SOL and before they have interacted with the nearest limiter surface. There is a general consensus that the dominant loss mechanism in the separated filaments is through parallel transport and that the transport to the wall is through the radial propagation of these filaments. Measurements of the filament energy content show that each filament contains up to 2.5% of the energy released by the ELM at the time it separates from the LCFS, assuming Ti = Te. The parallel flux e-folding length measured on DIII-D, AUG and MAST has a weaker scaling with normalised ELM size than appears to be necessary to explain the deficit in the ELM energy arriving in the divertor on JET, assuming a purely exponential decay of the filament energy with time.