Study of magnetic helicity injection via plasma imaging using a high-speed digital camera

Author

Hsu, S.C. ; Bellan, P.M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Appl. Phys., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

30

Issue

1

fYear

2002

fDate

2/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

10

Lastpage

11

Abstract

The evolution of a plasma generated by a novel planar coaxial gun is photographed using a state-of-the-art digital camera, which captures eight time-resolved images per discharge. This experiment is designed to study the fundamental physics of magnetic helicity injection, which is an important issue in fusion plasma confinement, as well as solar and astrophysical phenomena such as coronal mass ejections and accretion disk dynamics. The images presented in this paper are not only beautiful but provide a powerful way to understand the global dynamics of the plasma

Keywords

accretion disks; astrophysical plasma; magnetic fields; plasma diagnostics; plasma toroidal confinement; accretion disk dynamics; astrophysical phenomena; coronal mass ejections; fusion plasma confinement; high-speed digital camera; magnetic helicity injection; novel planar coaxial gun; plasma global dynamics; plasma imaging; spheromak; state-of-the-art digital camera; time-resolved images; Charge-coupled image sensors; Coaxial components; Copper; Digital cameras; Electrodes; Hydrogen; Magnetic fields; Physics; Plasma confinement; Plasma stability;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2002.1003898

Filename

1003898