EFDA-JET-PR(09)48

Observation of Confined Current Ribbon in JET Plasmas

We report the identification of a localised current structure inside the JET plasma. It is a field aligned closed helical ribbon, carrying current in the same direction as the background current profile (co-current), rotating toroidally with the ion velocity (co-rotating). It appears to be located at a flat spot in the plasma pressure profile, at the top of the pedestal. The structure appears spontaneously in low density, high rotation plasmas, and can last up to 1.4s, a time comparable to a local resistive time. It considerably delays the appearance of the first ELM.
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EFDP09048 2.15 Mb