Properties of longitudinal flux tube waves

III. Wave propagation in solar and stellar wind flows

¹ Department of Physics, Science Hall, University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), Arlington, TX 76019-0059, USA e-mail: cuntz@uta.edu
² NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Space Science Laboratory, Mail Stop SD 50, Huntsville, AL 35812, USA e-mail: steven.t.suess@nasa.gov

Received: 22 March 2004
Accepted: 25 May 2004

Abstract

We discuss the analytic properties of longitudinal tube waves taking into account ambient wind flows. This is an extension of the studies of Papers I and II, which assumed a mean flow speed of zero and also dealt with a simplified horizontal pressure balance. Applications include the study of longitudinal flux tube waves in stars with significant mass loss and the heating and dynamics of plumes in the solar wind. Slow magnetosonic waves, also called longitudinal waves, have been observed in solar plumes and are likely an important source of heating. We show that the inclusion of ambient wind flows considerably alters the limiting shock strength as well as the energy damping length of the waves.