Measurement of electron temperature fluctuations using a tunable correlation electron cyclotron emission system on Alcator C-Mod.

A tunable correlation electron cyclotron (CECE) system was recently installed on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak to provide local, quantitative measurement of electron temperature fluctuations in the tokamak core. This system represents a significant upgrade from the original CECE system, expanding the measurement capabilities from 4 to 8 total channels, including 2 remotely tunable YIG filters (6-18 GHz; 200 MHz bandwidth). Additional upgrades were made to the optical system to provide enhanced poloidal resolution and allow for measurement of turbulent fluctuations below kθρs < 0.3. These expanded capabilities allow for single shot measurement of partial temperature fluctuation profiles in the region ρ = 0.7 - 0.9 (square root of normalized toroidal flux) in a wide variety of plasma conditions. These measurements are currently being used to provide stringent tests of the gyrokinetic model in ongoing model validation efforts. Details of the hardware upgrades, turbulent fluctuation measurements, and ongoing comparisons with simulations are presented.