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181. Blob wakes in NSTX

Author(s):
Zweben SJ, Myra JR, Diallo A, Russell DA, Scotti F, Stotler DP
Abstract:
Transient small-scale structures were identified in the wake of blobs movingpoloidally through the SOL of high-powered H-mode plasmas in NSTX, using the gaspuff imaging (GPI) diagnostic. These blob wakes had a poloidal wavelength in therange 3.5 cm, which is significantly smaller than the average blob scale of~12 cm, and the wakes had a poloidal velocity of 1.5 km/sec in theelectron diamagnetic direction, which is opposite to the blob poloidal velocity inthese shots. These wakes were radially localized 0-4 cm outside the separatrix andoccurred within ~50 microsec after the passage of a blob through the GPI field of view.The clearest wakes were seen when the GPI viewing angle was well aligned with thelocal B field line, as expected for such small-scale structures given the diagnosticgeometry. A plausible theoretical interpretation of the wakes is discussed: theobserved wakes share some features of drift waves and/or drift-Alfven waves whichcould be excited
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
July 2019

182. Bubble pinch-off in turbulence

Abstract:
Experimental data, simulation code, and Python scripts to reproduce the data presented in "Bubble pinch-off in turbulence"
Type:
Dataset and Software

183. Calibrated VIC Model Parameters over CONUS

Author(s):
Yang, Yuan; Pan, Ming; Beck, Hylke; Fisher, Colby; Beighley, R. Edward; Kao, Shih-Chieh; Hong, Yang; Wood, Eric
Abstract:
Conventional basin-by-basin approaches to calibrate hydrologic models are limited to gauged basins and typically result in spatially discontinuous parameter fields. Moreover, the consequent low calibration density in space falls seriously behind the need from present-day applications like high resolution river hydrodynamic modeling. In this study we calibrated three key parameters of the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model at every 1/8° grid-cell using machine learning-based maps of four streamflow characteristics for the conterminous United States (CONUS), with a total of 52,663 grid-cells. This new calibration approach, as an alternative to parameter regionalization, applied to ungauged regions too. A key difference made here is that we tried to regionalize physical variables (streamflow characteristics) instead of model parameters whose behavior may often be less well understood. The resulting parameter fields no longer presented any spatial discontinuities and the patterns corresponded well with climate characteristics, such as aridity and runoff ratio. The calibrated parameters were evaluated against observed streamflow from 704/648 (calibration/validation period) small-to-medium-sized catchments used to derive the streamflow characteristics, 3941/3809 (calibration/validation period) small-to-medium-sized catchments not used to derive the streamflow characteristics) as well as five large basins. Comparisons indicated marked improvements in bias and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency. Model performance was still poor in arid and semiarid regions, which is mostly due to both model structural and forcing deficiencies. Although the performance gain was limited by the relative small number of parameters to calibrate, the study and results here served as a proof-of-concept for a new promising approach for fine-scale hydrologic model calibrations.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
4 September 2019

184. Climate Impacts from Large Volcanic Eruptions in a High-resolution Climate Model: the Importance of Forcing Structure

Author(s):
Yang, Wenchang; Vecchi, Gabriel; Fueglistaler, Stephan; Horowitz, Larry; Luet, David; Muñoz, Ángel; Paynter, David; Underwood, Seth
Abstract:
Explosive volcanic eruptions have large climate impacts, and can serve as observable tests of the climatic response to radiative forcing. Using a high resolution climate model, we contrast the climate responses to Pinatubo, with symmetric forcing, and those to Santa Maria and Agung, which had meridionally asymmetric forcing. Although Pinatubo had larger global-mean forcing, asymmetric forcing strongly shifts the latitude of tropical rainfall features, leading to larger local precipitation/TC changes. For example, North Atlantic TC activity over is enhanced/reduced by SH-forcing (Agung)/NH-forcing (Santa Maria), but changes little in response to the Pinatubo forcing. Moreover, the transient climate sensitivity estimated from the response to Santa Maria is 20% larger than that from Pinatubo or Agung. This spread in climatic impacts of volcanoes needs to be considered when evaluating the role of volcanoes in global and regional climate, and serves to contextualize the well-observed response to Pinatubo.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
2019

185. Comment on ‘Numerical modeling of tokamak breakdown phase driven by pure Ohmic heating under ideal conditions’

Author(s):
Yoo, Min-Gu; Na, Yong-Su
Abstract:
In this comment, we point out possible critical numerical flaws of recent particle simulation studies (Jiang et al 2016 Nucl. Fusion 56 126017, Peng et al 2018 Nucl. Fusion 58 026007) on the electrical gas breakdown in a simple one-dimensional periodic slab geometry. We show that their observations on the effects of the ambipolar electric fields during the breakdown, such as the sudden reversal of the ion flow direction, could not be real physical phenomena but resulting from numerical artifacts violating the momentum conservation law. We show that an incomplete implementation of the direct-implicit scheme can cause the artificial electric fields and plasma transports resulting in fallacies in simulation results. We also discuss that their simple plasma model without considering poloidal magnetic fields seriously mislead the physical mechanism of the electrical gas breakdown because it cannot reflect important dominant plasma dynamics in the poloidal plane (Yoo et al 2018 Nat. Commun. 9 3523).
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
June 2019

186. Competitive learning modulates memory consolidation during sleep

Author(s):
Antony, James W.; Cheng, Larry Y.; Brooks, Paula P.; Paller, Ken A.; Norman, Kenneth A.
Abstract:
Competition between memories can cause weakening of those memories. Here we investigated memory competition during sleep in human participants by presenting auditory cues that had been linked to two distinct picture-location pairs during wake. We manipulated competition during learning by requiring participants to rehearse picture-location pairs associated with the same sound either competitively (choosing to rehearse one over the other, leading to greater competition) or separately; we hypothesized that greater competition during learning would lead to greater competition when memories were cued during sleep. With separate-pair learning, we found that cueing benefited spatial retention. With competitive-pair learning, no benefit of cueing was observed on retention, but cueing impaired retention of well-learned pairs (where we expected strong competition). During sleep, post-cue beta power (16–30 Hz) indexed competition and predicted forgetting, whereas sigma power (11–16 Hz) predicted subsequent retention. Taken together, these findings show that competition between memories during learning can modulate how they are consolidated during sleep.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
November 2018

187. Design and simulation of the snowflake divertor control for NSTX-U

Author(s):
Vail, P. J.; Boyer, M. D.; Welander, A. S.; Kolemen, E.; U.S. Department of Energy contract number DE-AC02-09CH11466
Abstract:
This paper presents the development of a physics-based multiple-input-multiple-output algorithm for real-time feedback control of snowflake divertor (SFD) configurations on the National Spherical Torus eXperiment Upgrade (NSTX-U). A model of the SFD configuration response to applied voltages on the divertor control coils is first derived and then used, in conjunction with multivariable control synthesis techniques, to design an optimal state feedback controller for the configuration. To demonstrate the capabilities of the controller, a nonlinear simulator for axisymmetric shape control was developed for NSTX-U which simultaneously evolves the currents in poloidal field coils based upon a set of feedback-computed voltage commands, calculates the induced currents in passive conducting structures, and updates the plasma equilibrium by solving the free-boundary Grad-Shafranov problem. Closed-loop simulations demonstrate that the algorithm enables controlled operations in a variety of SFD configurations and provides capabilities for accurate tracking of time-dependent target trajectories for the divertor geometry. In particular, simulation results suggest that a time-varying controller which can properly account for the evolving SFD dynamical response is not only desirable but necessary for achieving acceptable control performance. The algorithm presented in this paper has been implemented in the NSTX-U Plasma Control System in preparation for future control and divertor physics experiments.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
April 2019

188. Dust and Starlight Maps for Galaxies in the KINGFISH Sample

Author(s):
Aniano, G.; Draine, B.T.; Hunt, L.K.; Sandstrom, K.; Calzetti, D.; Kennicutt, R.C.; Dale, D.A.; Galametz, M.; Gordon, K.D.; Leroy, A.K.; Smith, J.-D.T.; Roussel, H.; Sauvage, M.; Walter, F.; Armus, L.; Bolatto, A.D.; Boquien, M.; Crocker, A.; De Looze, I.; Donovan Meyer, J.; Helou, G.; Hinz, J.; Johnson, B.D.; Koda, J.; Miller, A.; Montiel, E.; Murphy, E.J.; Relano, M.; Rix, H.-W.; Schinnerer, E.; Skibba, R.; Wolfire, M.G.; Engelbracht, C.W.
Abstract:
Dust and starlight have been modeled for the KINGFISH project galaxies. For each pixel in each galaxy, we estimate: (1) dust surface density; (2) q_PAH, the dust mass fraction in PAHs; (3) distribution of starlight intensities heating the dust; (4) luminosity emitted by the dust; and (5) dust luminosity from regions with high starlight intensity. The modeling is as described in the paper "Modeling Dust and Starlight in Galaxies Observed by Spitzer and Herschel: The KINGFISH Sample", by G. Aniano, B.T. Draine, L.K. Hunt, K. Sandstrom, D. Calzetti, R.C. Kennicutt, D.A, Dale, and 26 other authors, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
Type:
Dataset and Image

189. Electron inertial effects on linearly polarized electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves at Earth's magnetosphere

Author(s):
Kim, Eun-Hwa; Johnson, Jay; Lee, Dong-Hun
Abstract:
We discuss a role of the electron inertial effect on linearly polarized electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves at Earth. The linearly polarized EMIC waves have been previously suggested to be generated via mode conversion from the fast compressional wave at the ion-ion hybrid (IIH) resonance. When the electron inertial effects are neglected, the wave normal angle of the mode-converted IIH waves is 90 degrees because the wavevector perpendicular to the magnetic field becomes infinite at the IIH resonance. When the electron inertial effect is considered, the mode-converted IIH waves can propagate across the magnetic field lines and the wavelength perpendicular to the magnetic field approaches the electron inertial length scale near the Buchsbaum resonance. These waves are referred to as electron inertial waves. Due to the electron inertial effect, the perpendicular wavenumber to the ambient magnetic field near the IIH resonance remains finite and the wave normal angle is less than 90 degrees. The wave normal angle where the maximum absorption occurs in a dipole magnetic field is 30-80 degrees, which is consistent with the observed values near the magnetic equator. Therefore, the numerical results suggest that the linearly polarized EMIC wave generated via mode conversion near the IIH resonance can be detected in between the Buchsbaum and the IIH resonance frequencies, and these waves can have normal angle less than 90 degrees.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
April 2019

190. Elemental and topographical imaging of microscopic variations in deposition on NSTX-U and DIII-D samples2

Author(s):
C.H. Skinner, C.P. Chrobak, R. Kaita, B.E.Koel
Abstract:
Abstract: Tokamak plasma facing components have surface roughness that can cause microscopic spatial variations in erosion and deposition and hence influence material migration, erosion lifetime, dust and tritium accumulation, and plasma contamination. However high spatial resolution measurements of deposition on the scale of the surface roughness have been lacking to date. We will present elemental images of graphite samples from NSTX-U and DIII-D DiMES experiments performed with a Scanning Auger Microprobe at sub-micron resolution that show strong microscopic variations in deposition and correlate this with 3D topographical maps of surface irregularities. The NSTX-U samples were boronized and exposed to deuterium plasmas and the DiMES samples had localized Al and W films and were exposed to dedicated helium plasmas. Topographical maps of the samples were performed with a 3D confocal optical microscope and compared to the elemental deposition pattern. The results revealed localized deposition concentrated in areas shadowed from the ion flux, incident in a direction calculated (for the DiMES case) by taking account of the magnetic pre-sheath.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
April 2019