Efficiency of Magnetohydrodynamic Wave Generation in Weakly Ionized Atmospheres

Abstract

The generation of Alfvén and slow magnetoacoustic waves in weakly ionized atmospheres by excitation of the charges-only component of the two-fluid (charge and neutral) plasma is shown to be more or less efficient depending on the energy fraction initially allocated to the three stationary flow differential modes, which characterize the inter-species drift. This is explained via detailed analysis of the full 10-dimensional spectral description of two-fluid linear magnetohydrodynamics. Excitation via the velocity of the charges only is found to be very inefficient, in accord with previous results, while excitation via the magnetic field perturbation alone is highly efficient. All 10 eigenvalues and eigenvectors are presented analytically in the high collision frequency regime.