Speaker
Description
Understanding plasma behavior throughout the entire duration of a pulse is critical for achieving the objectives of ITER and future fusion devices. Plasma parameters such as temperature, density, current profiles, and impurity content evolve dynamically during a discharge, influencing key aspects of performance including energy confinement, stability, and fusion power production. Analyzing plasma performance during the pulse—rather than relying solely on post-pulse data—provides essential insights into transient phenomena, transport processes, and the interplay of heating and fueling. This in-pulse analysis is vital for guiding control strategies for sustained, high-performance fusion plasmas during an experimental session.
In this work, we demonstrate the usage of ParaView as a key visualization and data exploration tool for IMAS, the Integrated Modelling and Analysis Suite that ITER is using for all its processed data needs, to support both static and interactive visualization of plasma parameters. By embedding ParaView scripts and tasks directly into an IMAS workflow, we can enable the generation of detailed visual outputs—such as 3D renderings of magnetic flux surfaces, current and temperature profiles, and diagnostic signal mappings—at various stages of the analysis. In addition, we can also leverage ParaView to ensure that complex, high-dimensional plasma data can be explored dynamically rather than only through static plots, empowering researchers to uncover subtle features such as asymmetries, localized instabilities, and temporal evolutions that might otherwise be overlooked. Users can manipulate views, apply filters, and adjust color maps interactively to investigate the spatial and temporal structure of plasma events, providing timely feedback on the quality and relevance of the analysis results. In addition, ParaView's ability to handle large, multi-dimensional datasets is critical in the context of ITER, where vast amounts of data must be processed, visualized, and interpreted quickly to inform operational decisions and advance scientific understanding.
By integrating ParaView as a modular, scriptable actor, we ensure that visualization tasks can be executed in parallel with other analysis tasks without introducing bottlenecks. This integration facilitates a workflow where data exploration is not an afterthought but a core component of the analysis pipeline, supporting transparent, reproducible, and actionable plasma performance insights for ITER and future fusion devices.
