Numerical analysis of key factors for the appearance of grassy ELMs in tokamak plasmas

Numerical stability analysis of edge-localized MHD mode is performed to identify the origin of small-amplitude 'grassy ELMs' on the basis of current understanding of kinetic effects on ballooning mode stability. These qualitative and quantitative analyses show that short wavelength ballooning mode can play an important role in a grassy ELM stability even when kinetic effects are taken into account. After showing the importance of kinetic effects for discussing grassy ELM physics, impacts of plasma parameters important for realizing a grassy ELM plasma experimentally are investigated numerically from the viewpoint of the edge-localized MHD stability including these kinetic effects. These analyses show that low plasma ellipticity is preferable to realize a grassy ELM plasma due to destabilizing ballooning mode by preventing access to the second stability region of the ballooning mode.