A method for zonal flow study by using direct density fluctuation measurements is proposed. When ambient drift-wave turbulence is modulated by zonal flows (i.e. in the drift-wave-zonal flow systems), an envelope of the ambient density fluctuations has spectral peaks around zonal flow frequencies. A spectral peak at the geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) frequency is observed in the envelope of the ambient density fluctuations measured in edge plasma of the JFT-2M tokamak. The significant cross-bicoherence is also found between the ambient density fluctuations and its envelope in the GAM frequency. This result demonstrates that we can measure the GAM only by using density fluctuation data. This method provides a possibility of zonal flow research in burning core plasma by density fluctuation diagnostics such as microwave reflectometry.
A review of zonal flow experiments