  Single-point measurements of fluctuations in the scrape-off layer of
magnetized plasmas are generally found to be dominated by large-amplitude
bursts which are associated with radial motion of blob-like structures. A
stochastic model for these fluctuations is presented, with the plasma density
given by a random sequence of bursts with a fixed wave form. Under very general
conditions, this model predicts a parabolic relation between the skewness and
kurtosis moments of the plasma fluctuations. In the case of exponentially
distributed burst amplitudes and waiting times, the probability density
function for the fluctuation amplitudes is shown to be a Gamma distribution
with the scale parameter given by the average burst amplitude and the shape
parameter given by the ratio of the burst duration and waiting times.
