A flux-coordinate independent field-aligned approach to plasma turbulence simulations

Abstract This work illustrates a new approach to field-aligned coordinates for plasma turbulence simulations which is not based on flux variables. The method employs standard Cartesian or polar coordinates to discretize the fields. Parallel derivatives are computed directly along a coordinate that follows the local field, and poloidal derivatives are computed in the original Cartesian frame. Several advantages of this approach are presented. The tests on a drift-wave model demonstrate that the method is well suited to exploit the flute property of small parallel gradients by minimizing the number of degrees of freedom needed to treat a given problem in an accurate and efficient manner.