Experimental Study of the Ion Critical-Gradient Length and Stiffness Level and the Impact of Rotation in the JET Tokamak

Experiments were carried out in the JET tokamak to determine the critical ion temperature inverse gradient length (R/L-Ti = R vertical bar del T-i vertical bar/T-i) for the onset of ion temperature gradient modes and the stiffness of Ti profiles with respect to deviations from the critical value. Threshold and stiffness have been compared with linear and nonlinear predictions of the gyrokinetic code GS2. Plasmas with higher values of toroidal rotation show a significant increase in R/L-Ti, which is found to be mainly due to a decrease of the stiffness level. This finding has implications on the extrapolation to future machines of present day results on the role of rotation on confinement.