Turbulent transport mechanisms and their impact on the pedestal top of JET plasmas with small-ELMs

Understanding the transport mechanisms that regulate the H-mode pedestal structure is crucial for developing regimes with edge dynamics that are compatible with the thermal and particle load constraints of plasma facing components. In this regard, at the JET tokamak, H-mode plasma regimes featuring small-ELM (BSE) dynamics have been developed, expelling less plasma energy per ELM compared to the standard type-I ELM. The pedestal of these new regimes remains stable against peeling-ballooning modes, leaving its structure unexplained. In this study, three baseline H-mode JET discharges—a reference with type-I ELM and two BSE regimes—are selected to investigate the turbulent transport mechanisms occurring in pedestals with different structures. The turbulence analysis is conducted using local gyrokinetic simulations around the pedestal top position. The results show that at ion scales, while hybrid ITG-KBM and KBM are destabilized in the type-I ELM discharge, the BSE regimes are dominated by hybrid ITG-TEM, suggesting a different role of turbulent transport in the two cases. At electron scales, both regimes are dominated by toroidal and slab ETG, the latter extending up to very small scales. Simulations of turbulence driven by hybrid ITG-TEM focuses on the impact and competition of electromagnetic (EM) effects and equilibrium shearing. A strong EM stabilization mechanism is found, resulting in a saturated turbulence regime with spectra different from those in the electrostatic limit (ESl). Additionally, while increasing shearing reduces transport in ESl simulations, it is observed to have the opposite effect in the EM regime. Finally, stiff ETG transport is also shown to produce transport levels compatible with experimental observations. The findings of this study suggest the EM stabilization and its competition with shearing as new key elements that determine the nature of the turbulent transport mechanisms around the pedestal top, which need to be considered in reduced models for pedestal limits.