Analysis of line integrated electron density using plasma position data on Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research.

A 280 GHz single-channel horizontal millimeter-wave interferometer system has been installed for plasma electron density measurements on the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device. This system has a triangular beam path that does not pass through the plasma axis due to geometrical constraints in the superconducting tokamak. The term line density on KSTAR has a different meaning from the line density of other tokamaks. To estimate the peak density and the mean density from the measured line density, information on the position of the plasma is needed. The information has been calculated from tangentially viewed visible images using the toroidal symmetry of the plasma. Interface definition language routines have been developed for this purpose. The calculated plasma position data correspond well to calculation results from magnetic analysis. With the position data and an estimated plasma profile, the peak density and the mean density have been obtained from the line density. From these results, changes of plasma density themselves can be separated from effects of the plasma movements, so they can give valuable information on the plasma status.