Global Simulations of Interchange Turbulence in a Dipole-confined Plasma

Global nonlinear fluid simulations of interchange turbulence are carried out in a point dipole geometry based on the flux-tube averaged ideal MHD model. Consistent with LDX experimental observations, centrally peaked pressure profiles is obtained in nonlinear steady state. The simulations show that the evolution of interchange mode leads to the large scale plasma convection, and the low mode number is dominated in the saturated fluctuation spectra.