Coupled simulation of kinetic pedestal growth and MHD ELM crash

Edge pedestal height and the accompanying ELM crash are critical elements of ITER physics yet to be understood and predicted through high performance computing. An entirely self-consistent first principles simulation is being pursued as a long term research goal, and the plan is planned for completion in time for ITER operation. However, a proof-of-principle work has already been established using a computational tool that employs the best first principles physics available at the present time. A kinetic edge equilibrium code XGC0, which can simulate the neoclassically dominant pedestal growth from neutral ionization (using a phenomenological residual turbulence diffusion motion superposed upon the neoclassical particle motion) is coupled to an extended MHD code M3D, which can perform the nonlinear ELM crash. The stability boundary of the pedestal is checked by an ideal MHD linear peeling-ballooning code, which has been validated against many experimental data sets for the large scale (type I) ELMs onset boundary. The coupling workflow and scientific results to be enabled by it are described.