Simulating the coupled evolution of drift-wave turbulence and the tearing mode

Numerical simulations of turbulence and MHD instabilities such as the tearing mode can be computationally expensive and only recently have simulations begun to address their coupled, self-consistent interactions. The disparate scales involved in simulating the coupled evolution of small-scale turbulence and the larger-scale tearing mode make this a challenging numerical problem. Using the newly developed code, TURBO, we have performed nonlinear simulations of Hasegawa-Wakatani drift-wave turbulence coupled to Ohm's law. An equilibrium with prescribed stability properties and turbulent drives is used to examine the impact of drift-wave turbulence on the stability of the tearing mode and the energy transport between them in the context of a turbulent resistivity and turbulent viscosity. We find that the spatial structure of the density flux and these transport coefficients are asymmetric in the poloidal direction and peaked away from the X-point in the presence of an island in a poloidal flow. Similar effects are seen in simulations of ITG turbulence in the presence of a magnetic island and we discuss the connections to our work.