Data Processing System for the Automatic Transformation of Observed Plasma Intensities into their Radial Distribution

A data recording and processing system is described which automatically unfolds the observed side-on radiation from cylindrically and rotationally symmetric plasmas into the radial distribution and thus eliminates most of the tedious and time-consuming data processing work. The projected intensity profiles over a cross section of the source are photoelectrically detected and integrated over small intervals of equal length utilizing a voltage-to-frequency converter. The output is fed into a digital counter and recorded on paper tape together with auxiliary information. The data are then processed by an electronic computer using an available transformation scheme which utilizes the Abel integral equation. In comparison to manual processing the precision is vastly improved and surpasses by far the usual requirements of spectroscopic experiments.