The essential role of zonal flow in the L-H transition and the suppression of turbulence have been studied with a long range correlation technique using Langmuir probe arrays in EAST tokamak. Two toroidally localized probe arrays are used to measure the zonal flow during L-H transition and H-L back transition. The energy ratio of the low frequency zonal flow to the total drift wave turbulence is calculated. During ELM-free H mode, the energy ratio is higher than that in L mode, which reveals the important role of zonal flows in regulating turbulence amplitude in L-H transition.

Geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs) [1], which are the highfrequency branch of zonal flows, are azimuthally symmetric modes unique to toroidal plasma. GAMs are characterized by potential fluctuations with m = n = 0 (m/n is the polodial/ toroidal mode number). Recently, GAMs have received considerable attention in magnetic fusion plasma research due to the important role in controlling the transport level of plasmas through nonlinear interaction with drift-wave turbulence [2, 3]. Those conclusions have been further enhanced by the observation of a competition between the turbulence level and GAM flow shearing in the limit-cycle phase on ASDEX-U [4]. By now, it has been pointed out that the time-dependent

An electrostatic coherent mode with a frequency of 20 ∼ 100 kHz can be observed during the formation of transport barriers in high-confinement-mode plasma in the HL-2A tokamak, using reciprocating Langmuir probes. The mode drives a strong inward particle flux measured directly with four-tip probes with values comparable to the particle flux at the striking point in the divertor, which has also been validated by the measurement of other diagnostics. Several characteristics simultaneously indicate that the mode is an ion mode excited at the edge, which plays an important role in the formation of transport barriers besides particle diffusion.

Zonal flows (ZFs) are observed during the electrode biasing (EB) high confinement mode (H-mode) using Langmuir probe arrays on the edge of J-TEXT tokamak. The long-distance correlation characteristics of floating potentials and interactions with turbulence are studied. During positive biasing H-mode, either the geodesic acoustic mode or low frequency ZF increases. Strong suppression of radial transport by ZFs is found in the low frequency region. The components of the radial particle flux without and with EB are compared in the frequency domain. The interaction between ZFs and ambient turbulence is also discussed. The results show that the rate of ZFs' shear is comparable with that of E×B shear, suggesting that ZFs could be the trigger of the biasing H-mode.

The poloidal × E B r T rotation velocities in the core plasma region are studied using the instantaneous frequency method (IFM) with the density fluctuations measured by the CO 2 laser collective scattering diagnostics on the HT-7 tokamak. A coherent mode is observed in the fluctuations of poloidal velocities with the mode frequency from 10 to 20 kHz. It is identified as geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) zonal flow with poloidal symmetry (m = 0) and its mode frequency coinciding with the theoretical expected GAM frequency. The nonlinear interactions are investigated by applying the envelope analysis on the density fluctuations. The results confirm that the envelope modulation in the high frequency density fluctuations only comes from the shearing by GAM. The comparison between IFM and envelope analysis is also discussed.