Abstract
Shear flow instability is studied in the planar magnetopause boundary layer region by treating the plasma as compressible. A necessary criterion for instability near the cusp resonance is obtained analytically. The criterion depends on plasmaβ, Alfven Mach numberMAand the ratio of the scale lengths of the gradients in the flow and Alfven velocities. The instability at the cusp resonance layer can be excited rather easily for the lowβ plasma and for shear flow scale length smaller than the typical scale length over which Alfven velocity varies. The growth rate for instability is obtained for anyβ from a cubic equation. The unstable modes may contribute to the ULF wave activity at the magnetopause.
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