The power load to the divertor surfaces is a key concern for future devices such as ITER, due to the thermal limits on the material surface. One factor that characterises the heat flux to the divertor is the fall off length in the SOL, which recent empirical scalings have shown could be as small as 1 mm. These predictions are based on a multi-machine scaling of the heat flux width fitted using an expression for the divertor heat flux profile which includes a term for the exponential decay in the scrape off layer (SOL) and diffusion about the last closed flux surface (LCFS) in the private flux region.
