Effects of turbulent fluctuations on density measurements with microwave reflectometry in tokamaks (abstract)

The short-scale turbulence of tokamak plasmas has deleterious effects on the measurement of plasma density with microwave reflectometry. Density fluctuations may lead to large amplitude and phase modulations of the reflected wave which can impair the measurement of the wave group delay, and hence the determination of the plasma density. The role played by different types of turbulent fluctuations and the limitations imposed on microwave reflectometry are discussed