Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Astrophysics and Astronomy
Spectroscopic Measurements Of Temperature And Plasma Impurity Concentration During Magnetic Reconnection At The Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment, Vernon Hampden Chaplin , '07, Michael R. Brown, David H. Cohen, T. Gray, C. D. Cothran
Spectroscopic Measurements Of Temperature And Plasma Impurity Concentration During Magnetic Reconnection At The Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment, Vernon Hampden Chaplin , '07, Michael R. Brown, David H. Cohen, T. Gray, C. D. Cothran
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works
Electron temperature measurements during counterhelicity spheromak merging studies at the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment (SSX) [M. R. Brown, Phys. Plasmas 6, 1717 (1999)] are presented. VUV monochromator measurements of impurity emission lines are compared with model spectra produced by the non-LTE excitation kinematics code PRISMSPECT [J. J. MacFarlane et al., in Proceedings of the Third Conference on Inertial Fusion Science and Applications (2004)] to yield the electron temperature in the plasma with 1 mu s time resolution. Average T(e) is seen to increase from 12 to 19 eV during spheromak merging. Average C III ion temperature, measured with a new ion …
3d Reconnection And Flow Dynamics In The Ssx Experiment, Michael R. Brown, C. D. Cothran, David H. Cohen, Jason Alexander Horwitz , '07, Vernon Hampden Chaplin , '07
3d Reconnection And Flow Dynamics In The Ssx Experiment, Michael R. Brown, C. D. Cothran, David H. Cohen, Jason Alexander Horwitz , '07, Vernon Hampden Chaplin , '07
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works
Several new experimental results are reported from plasma merging studies at the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment (SSX) with relevance to collisionless three-dimensional magnetic reconnection in laboratory and space plasmas. First, recent high-resolution velocity measurements of impurity ions using ion Doppler spectroscopy (IDS) show bi-directional outflow jets at 40 km/s (nearly the Alfven speed). The SSX IDS instrument measures with 1 mu s or better time resolution the width and Doppler shift of the C-III impurity (H plasma) 229.7 nm line to determine the temperature and line-averaged flow velocity during spheromak merging events. High flow speeds are corroborated using an in situ …
Flow Dynamics And Plasma Heating Of Spheromaks In Ssx, Michael R. Brown, C. D. Cothran, David H. Cohen, Jason Alexander Horwitz , '07, Vernon Hampden Chaplin , '07
Flow Dynamics And Plasma Heating Of Spheromaks In Ssx, Michael R. Brown, C. D. Cothran, David H. Cohen, Jason Alexander Horwitz , '07, Vernon Hampden Chaplin , '07
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works
We report several new experimental results related to flow dynamics and heating from single dipole-trapped spheromaks and spheromak merging studies at SSX. Single spheromaks (stabilized with a pair of external coils, see Brown, Phys. Plasmas 13 102503 (2006)) and merged FRC-like configurations (see Brown, Phys. Plasmas 13, 056503 (2006)) are trapped in our prolate (R = 0.2 m, L = 0.6 m) copper flux conserver. Local spheromak flow is studied with two Mach probes (r(1) = rho(i) ) calibrated by time-of-flight with a fast set of magnetic probes at the edge of the device. Both Mach probes feature six ion …