EFDA-JET-PR(13)25

Influence of Plasma Diagnostics and Constraints on the Quality of Equilibrium Reconstructions on JET

The free boundary equilibrium problem, described by the Grad-Shafranov equation in toroidal geometry and axisymmetric configurations, is mathematically very ill posed. Therefore the quality of the equilibrium reconstruction depends sensitively on the measurements used as inputs and on the imposed constraints. In this paper, it is shown how the different diagnostics (Magnetics Measurements, Polarimetry and Motional Stark Effect), together with the edge current density and plasma pressure constraints, can have a significant impact on the quality of the equilibrium on JET. Results show that both the Polarimetry and Motional Stark Effect internal diagnostics are crucial in order to obtain reasonable safety factor profiles. The impact of the edge current density constraint is significant when the plasma is in the H-mode of confinement. In this plasma scenario the strike point positions and the plasma last closed flux surface can change even by centimetres, depending on the edge constraints, with a significant impact on the remapping of the equilibrium-dependent diagnostics and of pedestal physics studies. On the other hand and quite counter intuitively, the pressure constraint can severely affect the quality of the magnetic reconstructions in the core. These trends have been verified with several JET discharges and consistent results have been found. An interpretation of these results, as an interplay between degrees of freedom and available measurements, is provided.
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EFDP13025 1.05 Mb