Reflectometry as a fluctuation diagnostic: A one-dimensional simulation

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Abstract
Reflectometry is currently employed to characterize turbulence in fusion plasmas worldwide and is expected to be a major diagnostic on the next generation of machines (e.g., ITER). Until recently, little was known about the response of a reflectometer to fluctuations (degree of localization of the signal, sensitivity to fluctuation wave number, dependence on density scale length, etc.). To elucidate these properties, we have been modeling reflectometer behavior with a code based on solution of a one-dimensional full wave equation. The code models an infinite plane plasma with density gradient in the x direction and solves the full wave equation to find the electric field of the reflectometer’s electromagnetic wave. It can simulate stationary and moving density perturbations with arbitrary waveforms and wave numbers in plasmas with arbitrary density profiles. We present results of test cases comparing computational results to known analytic solutions for linear and 1−α2/x2 plasma density profiles, which show very good agreement.

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