On the instability of hydromagnetic planetary-gravity waves in zonal wind-magnetic shears (Q1064214): Difference between revisions

This paper is concerned with the instability problem of atmospheric hydromagnetic planetary-gravity waves propagating on a \(\beta\)-plane through steady zonal flow \(U_ 0(z)\) and a zonal magnetic field \(B_ 0(z)\) both of which are sheared in the vertical direction. The dispersion relation for a plane-wave type solution, even after using WKBJ approximation, remains much complicated. In order to make further progress the following assumptions are introduced: (i) The Doppler-shifted wave frequency is much less than the value of the Coriolis parameter at the latitude on which the \(\beta\)- plane is centered, which is much less than the Brunt-Väisälä frequency (ŵ\(\ll f_ 0\ll N)\); (ii) The vertical wave lengths are much smaller than the horizontal wave lengths, that is, \(k_ z\gg \max (k_ x,k_ y)\); (iii) The waves resulting are those in which the magnetic, buoyancy and Coriolis forces balance each other, that is, \(\max (k_ yV_ 0,k_ xV_ 0)\ll f_ 0\) and \(k_ zV_ 0\) is comparable with \(f_ 0\), where \(V_ 0\) is the Alfvén wave speed; (iv) The order of \(\beta\) is very small compared to the order of \(U_ 0.\) Then the resulting dispersion equation, which is quadratic in w (wave frequency) is analyzed by drawing the marginal instability curves corresponding to \(Im(w)=0\). It is shown that when \(V_ 0\) is kept uniform, a vertical wave number instability \(k_ z\) can onset provided \(k_ yk_ zU_ 0\) is positive and that \(\bar U=k_ yk_ zU_ 0/\lambda >1+\alpha\), where \(\lambda\) and \(\alpha\) are positive parameters which depend on the properties of the medium. If \(U_ 0\) is kept uniform and \(V_ 0\) is allowed to vary instability can onset provided that \(V_ 0\) exceeds a certain value.