Eur. Phys. J. D (2012) 66: 32
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2011-20163-7

Regular Article

Propagation of Alfvén surface waves along the ionospheric plasma slab with the effect of gravity

¹ Plasma Physics Group, Department of Physics, Gandhigram Rural Institute-Deemed University, 624 302 Gandhigram, Dindigul, Tamilnadu, India
² Department of Physics, School of Science & Humanities, Kongu Engineering College, 638 052 Perundurai, Erode, Tamilnadu, India

^a e-mail: drmsivaraman@yahoo.co.in

Received: 18 March 2011
Received in final form: 29 November 2011
Published online: 16 February 2012

Abstract

Ionospheric regions connecting the neutral gas atmosphere have been considered to be an incompressible plasma slab surrounded by incompressible plasma on one side and neutral gas on the other side. The effect of gravity on Alfvén surface waves in the slab geometry is studied. As a special case, the propagation of ASW along the plasma-neutral gas interface is also discussed. The existence of two modes of surface waves has been identified and their characteristic behaviour affected by the gravity has been discussed.