In
toroidally confined fusion plasma experiments the term zonal flow means a
plasma
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flow within a magnetic surface primarily in the
poloidal direction. This usage is inspired by the analogy between the quasi-two-dimensional nature of large-scale atmospheric and oceanic flows, where
zonal means latitudinal, and the similarly quasi-two-dimensional nature of low-frequency flows in a strongly magnetized plasma.
Zonal flows in the toroidal plasma context are further characterized by
* being localized in their
radial extent transverse to the magnetic surfaces (in contrast to global plasma rotation),
* having little or no variation in either the
poloidal or toroidal direction—they are ''m'' = ''n'' = 0 modes (where ''m'' and ''n'' are the poloidal and toroidal mode numbers, respectively),
* having zero real frequency when analyzed by linearization around an unperturbed toroidal equilibrium state (in contrast to the geodesic acoustic mode branch, which has finite frequency).
* Arising via a
self-organization phenomenon driven by low-frequency drift-type modes, in which energy is transferred to longer wavelengths by modulational instability or
turbulent inverse cascade.
See also
*
Zonal and poloidal
*
Zonal flow
*
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References
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Plasma physics
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