Abstract
Quiescent H-mode (QH-mode) is an ELM free mode of operation in which edge-localized harmonic oscillations (EHOs) are believed to enhance particle transport, thereby stabilizing ELMs and preventing damage to the divertor and plasma facing components. Microwave Imaging Reflectometer (MIR) enabling direct comparison between the measured and simulated 2D images of density fluctuations near the edge can determine the 2D structure of density oscillation, which can help to explain the physics behind EHO modes. MIR data sometimes indicate a counter-propagation between dominant (n=1) and higher harmonic modes of coherent EHOs in the steep gradient regions of the pedestal. To preclude diagnostic artifacts, we have performed forward modeling that includes possible optical mis-alignments to show that offsets between transmitting and receiving antennas do not account for this feature. We have also simulated the non-linear structure of the EHO modes, which induces multiple harmonics that are properly charaterized in the synthetic diagnostic. By excluding mis-alignments of optics as well as patially eliminating non-linearity of EHO mode structure as possible explanation for the data, counter-propagation observed in MIR data, which is not corroborated by external Mirnov coil array measurements, may be due to subtleties of the eigenmode structure, such as an inversion radius consistent with a magnetic island. Similar effects are observed in analysis of internal ECE-Imaging and BES data. The identification of a non-ideal structure motivates further exploration of nonlinear models of this instability.A shorter version of this contribution is due to be published in PoS at: 1st EPS conference on Plasma Diagnostics
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