Spectrum Of Hydromagnetic Waves In The Exosphere

A disturbance in the exosphere generates waves in three partially separable modes. These modes are described by considering the vorticity about a line of force, the two-dimensional divergence of velocity in the plane perpendicular to the line of force, and the component of velocity along the line of force. The propagation of vorticity is one-dimensional and there is no geometrical attenuation; energy is lost only through the finite conductivity of the medium. The propagation of the longitudinal velocity component is almost one-dimensional but is heavily damped at high frequencies. In a gravitational field, the medium is no longer uniform and at low frequencies the modes are coupled in a complicated way. For parallel magnetic and gravitational fields, the vorticity mode is still separable and gravity leads to anisotropic dispersion in the other modes.-p.i.