Electric currents in the scrape-off layer in ASDEX Upgrade

Scrape-off layer (SOL) currents are measured by means of Langmuir probes and shunts in the divertor of ASDEX Upgrade. They consist of the overlayed contributions of thermoelectric and Pfirsch–Schlüter (PS) currents. The SOL currents exhibit a drastic decrease when the line-averaged density approaches the Greenwald density in the H-mode. An analytical model is presented which reproduces the measured thermoelectric current quantitatively. Matching of the analytical model with the measured current scaling yields information about divertor temperatures and SOL e-folding lengths.