Identification of Mercier instabilities in Alcator C-Mod tokamak

During current ramp-up discharges, highly localized magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) fluctuations were observed on the electron cyclotron emission diagnostics of Alcator C-Mod tokamak [I. H. Hutchinson et al., Phys. Plasmas 1, 1511 (1994)]. The electron temperature profile was hollow, while the density profile was weakly decreasing. Assuming that the equilibration time was short enough to quickly thermalize ions the pressure profile was also found to be hollow. Using this pressure profile as an additional constraint to the EFIT program, an equilibrium with reversed shear was constructed having a q(0)≫1. The localized MHD activity was observed near the inner q = 5 rational surface in this reconstructed equilibrium, where the Mercier criterion for ideal MHD stability was violated because of the reversed pressure gradient (dp/dr>0), q>1 and moderate shear. When kinetic effects were added, the ideal Mercier mode was finite ion Larmor radius stabilized. However, ion Landau damping was found to be strong enough to drive a kinetic Mercier instability.