Origin and turbulence spreading of plasma blobs

Abstract

The formation of plasma blobs is studied by analyzing their trajectories in a gyrofluid simulation in the vicinity of the separatrix. Most blobs arise at the maximum radial electric field outside the separatrix. In general, blob generation is not bound to one particular radial position or instability. A simple model of turbulence spreading for the scrape-off layer is derived. The simulations show that the blob dynamics can be represented by turbulence spreading, which constitutes a substantial energy drive for far scrape-off layer turbulence and is a more suitable quantity to study blob generation compared to the skewness.