The shapes of the electron temperature and electron density profiles in the OH, L- and H-mode confinement regimes of ASDEX are explored by statistical analysis. It is shown that the shape of Te(r) is conserved in the outer half of the plasma in these regimes and that it is invariant with respect to heating power, heating profile, density, density scale length, q value and ion mass. These results suggest that microturbulence constrains the shape of the temperature profile by adjusting the electron heat diffusivity χe(r). No such invariance is found for the temperature profile in the inner half of the plasma and for the density profile over the whole cross-section. Properties of the empirical electron heat diffusivity and the diffusion coefficient in different regimes can be described by Te profile invariance. The improved confinement with peaked density profiles, the reduction of χe in the bulk of H-mode plasmas and the power dependence of χe in the L-regime are discussed
Thomson scattering diagnostic in the boundary layer of ASDEX