Relaxation oscillations and toroidal-current regeneration in a helicity-driven spheromak

During the sustained phase of spheromak operation in the flux amplification compact toroid device, detailed observations were made on the discrete relaxation and toroidal current regeneration events that occurred throughout a typical quasiregular cycle. Measurements indicate that over such a cycle there appears to be a global self-organizing phenomenon which involves both the collapse and subsequent recovery of the closed flux surfaces. At the point of recovery, the partially relaxed state is characterized by a value of \ensuremath{\lambda} on the central region which is greater than that on the edge region.