A new geometry of microwave polarimetric measurements is presented, which realizes a localized plasma polarimetry based on the phenomenon of electromagnetic mode conversion. Such a conversion takes place in the tokamak plasma, in the vicinity of the point where the microwave beam is orthogonal to one of the helical magnetic lines. In distinction to the traditional plasma polarimetry, which deals with the line averaged plasma parameters, the new methodology allows for a measurement of the local values of plasma parameters near the point of orthogonality. This methodology was shown to be very efficient in studies of the solar radio emission and polarization properties of radio waves passing through the Earth ionosphere. In the following the theory of electromagnetic mode conversion is described and conditions of its applicability are analyzed. It is shown that localized polarimetric measurements of plasma parameters in the geometry of the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) device would require very high electron densities Ne, exceeding 1017 cm–3, i.e. thousand times higher than those envisaged in the ITER project.
