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Blob properties are studied in the scrape-off layer of the tokamak ASDEX Upgrade with a fast camera. The gas-puff imaging technique is used to investigate the detection rate as well as the blob size and velocity scaling. The experiments were performed in L- and H-mode phases of the same discharges to study the change in blob properties after the L-H transition. In both regimes the detection rate is of the order of a few thousand blobs per second, which is compatible with the picture of blob generation by edge micro instabilities. The blob size increases in H-mode, while the radial velocity decreases slightly. The changes are, however, not indicating a drastic change in the blob dynamics in both phases. The experimentally found blob properties were compared to predictions from a novel blob model including effects due to a finite ion temperature, which should be more appropriate for the conditions in the SOL of fusion plasmas.

Microscopic turbulence properties in the edge of toroidally confined fusion plasmas are studied by comparative analysis of experimental data from seven devices, collected in an international edge turbulence database. The database contains Langmuir probe measurements of fluctuations in the floating potential and ion saturation current across the last closed flux surface. They are used to address statistical properties and particle transport. Universal features of plasma edge turbulence such as an increase in skewness across the scrape-off layer (SOL) as footprints of density blobs are recovered in all devices. Analysis of the correlation lengths and times reveals power law scaling relations with macroscopic drift-wave parameters, albeit weaker than would be expected for drift-wave turbulence. As a result, the turbulent diffusivity scales with the inverse of the magnetic field strength, which is closer to Bohm-like scaling than to gyro-Bohm scaling. Nearly identical scaling relations are determined in the confined plasma edge and the SOL, pointing to a strong connection between drift-wave turbulence in the edge and blobs in the SOL. The contributions of blobs and holes (negative density spikes) to the radial particle transport are analyzed qualitatively with a conditional averaging approach. Blobs are connected to outward transport in the SOL of all devices whereas holes exhibit no uniform propagation pattern.

Blob properties are studied in the scrape-off layer of the stellarator TJ-K. Langmuir probes and a fast camera are used to investigate the generation rate as well as the blob size and velocity scaling. Discharges with different ion species and magnetic field strengths provide access to a large range of plasma parameters. It was found that almost every large amplitude drift wave in the edge of the confined plasma triggers blob generation in the scrape-off layer, which implies that the birth rate of blobs is determined by the turbulence in the edge. Furthermore, the cross-field size of the blobs seems to correlate with the size of the generating drift waves. Since the observed radial propagation velocity of the blobs is well described by a size dependent blob velocity model, the size coupling between the drift waves and the blobs also has an impact on the blob velocities. Thus, the presented results imply that the dynamics in the edge have a large influence on the blob properties in the scrape-off layer.

Analyses of non-linear interactions in drift-wave turbulence were carried out in wavenumber space on experimental data obtained from multi-probe measurements in the toroidally confined plasma of the stellarator TJ-K. Recent results are reported. The inverse cascade of energy from small to large scales as typical for two-dimensional turbulence is verified. The transfer in k space is found to be governed by non-local processes. The same way, large-scale zonal flows (ZFs) are found to tap energy from small-scale turbulence, as consistent with the vortex-thinning mechanism. An enhancement of the correlation between ZF shear and Reynolds stress as a source of ZF energy is observed, when strong background shear flows are imposed, which comes along with increased long-range correlations.