Flow and shear behavior in the edge and scrape-off layer of L-mode plasmas in National Spherical Torus Experiment

Fluctuations in the edge and scrape-off layer (SOL) of L-mode plasmas in the National Spherical Torus Experiment [Kaye et al., Phys. Plasmas 8, 1977 (2001)] as observed by the gas puff imaging (GPI) diagnostic are studied. Calculation of local, time resolved velocity maps using the hybrid optical flow and pattern matching velocimetry code enables analysis of turbulent flow and shear behavior. Periodic reversals in the direction of the poloidal flow near the separatrix are observed. Also, poloidal velocities and their radial shearing rate are found to be well correlated with the fraction of D(alpha) light contained in the SOL, which acts as a measure of turbulent bursts. The spectra of GPI intensity and poloidal velocity both have a strong feature near 3 kHz, which appears to correspond with turbulent bursts. This mode exhibits a poloidal structure with poloidal wavenumber of 7.7 m(-1) for GPI intensity and 3.4 m(-1) for poloidal velocity, and the poloidal velocity fluctuations near 3 kHz remain coherent over length scales in excess of the turbulent scales. Furthermore, recent SOL turbulence simulations find a parameter regime that exhibits periodic bursty transport and shares many qualitative similarities with the experimental data. Strong correlations between the shearing rate and the turbulent bursts are observed for time periods of similar to 2 ms, but the relationship is complicated by several factors. Finally, measurements of the radial profiles of the Reynolds shear stresses are reported. These radial profiles exhibit many similarities for several shots, and a region with positive radial gradient is seen to be coincident with local flow shear. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3533435]